[IPSM] Montreal: AYOUB Family Liberated! - Update from the Coalition Against the Deportation of Palestinian Refugees

[No One is Illegal Montreal]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 1 Mar 2005 12:47:32 -0800 (PST)
From: Palestinian Refugees - Montreal <refugees at riseup.net>


AYOUB Family Liberated!
The Struggle Against PALESTINIAN DEPORTATIONS Continues

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In this Message:
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1) Update on the Ayoub family
2) Call for Financial Contributions
3) Action Item: Letter Writing to Citizenship and Immigration


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Update on the Ayoub Family:
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Montreal, Monday, February 27th, 2005 --- After taking sanctuary at the 
Notre-Dame-de-Grâce church in Montreal more than one-year ago, the Ayoub family 
- Khalil Ayoub, 67, Nabih Ayoub, 69 and Thérèse Boulos Haddad, 62 - have won 
their battle to remain in Canada. This past Sunday, after the church service at 
the congregation of the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce church, the Palestinian Refugee 
Support Committee of the Notre-Dame de Grace Church publicly declared the news 
of the Ayoub families' acceptance, to a cheering congregation and supporters 
from the Coalition Against the Deportation of Palestinian Refugees who had 
gathered at the church.

In the context of this concrete victory, the Coalition Against the Deportation 
of Palestinian Refugees stresses the importance of continuing to build public 
support and solidarity with ongoing struggle of more-than 100 Palestinian 
refugees, who continue to face deportation from Canada. The Ayoub family's 
victory brings a sense of hope and inspiration to the ongoing struggle of these 
Palestinian refugees against the crisis of deportation in their community 
created by the policies of Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC).

The Ayoub family, whose Application for Permanent Residence on Humanitarian and 
Compassionate Grounds in Canada has been officially accepted by CIC, will 
continue to live at the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce church for the near future. They 
must now attempt to piece back-together their lives in Montreal, which were 
torn-apart when Immigration Canada issued a deportation order for the family in 
January 2004.

It was more than one-year ago that the Ayoub family publicly announced to the 
people of Montreal, Canada and the world their decision to defy the deportation 
order issued by CIC. Under imminent threat of deportation to a Palestinian 
refugee camp in Lebanon, the Ayoub family were forced to take sanctuary. During 
the year the family spent in sanctuary, they became a living symbol of the 
ongoing struggle against Palestinian deportations from Canada.

Today, more than 100 Palestinian refugees in Canada face imminent deportation. 
Like the Ayoub family, most of the refugees are from the refugee camps of 
Lebanon and many are also from the Occupied Territories. Their claims for 
refugee status in Canada have been systematically rejected in recent years and 
have fallen subject to CIC draconian policies of detention and deportation.

As the Ayoub families' declares victory in their struggle against deportation 
and for status in Canada, the Coalition Against the Deportation of Palestinian 
Refugees, has outlined various ways in which people can concretely support the 
ongoing fight against Palestinian deportations. Your solidarity and support for 
this struggle is needed more now than ever, given that there are Palestinian 
refugees who continue to face immanent deportation within the coming months. 
Outlined below are various ways in which you can support.

In Solidarity,
the Coalition Against the Deportation of Palestinian Refugees
514 859 9070/ refugees at riseup.net / http://refugees.resist.ca

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2) FUNDING APPEAL from the Coalition Against
the Deportation of Palestinian Refugees:
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In the context of the Ayoub families' recent victory, please donate to
support the ongoing campaign against Palestinian deportations financially.
Checks can be written in the name of Medical Aid for Palestine --- Please
indicate Coalition Against the Deportation of Palestinian Refugees in the
memo line --- checks can be mailed to the following address:

the Coalition Against the Deportation of Palestinian Refugees
c/o QPIRG McGill
3647 University Street
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 2B3
Canada

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3) ACTION ITEM: Letter Writing to Joe Volpe,
Minister of Citizenship and Immigration
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Send letters, email and call the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration in 
Canada. Below talking points are provided as a basis of contacting Immigration 
Canada officials in Canada. Please "CC" the Coalition Against the Deportation 
of Palestinian Refugees at "refugees at riseup.net", when writing your letter.

As usual, be brief and polite. It is best if you formulate your own
letter, but feel free to use the sample letter below for guidance.

Joe Volpe: Minister of Citizenship and Immigration
Email: minister at cic.gc.ca, volpej at parl.gc.ca, volpej1 at parl.gc.ca

Post:
Jean-Edmonds Tower South, 21st Floor
365 Laurier Avenue West
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 1L1

Subject: Palestinian Refugees Facing Deportation from Canada

Dear Minister Volpe:

This letter is being sent in response to a call from the Coalition Against the 
Deportation of Palestinian Refugees in Canada. In recognition of the recent 
decision of Citizenship and Immigration Canada, to grant a positive decision on 
the Humanitarian & Compassionate Grounds Claim of the Ayoub family, I continue 
to call upon Immigration Minister, Joe Volpe and CIC to immediately halt the 
pending deportation of over 100 Palestinian refugees and immediately grant them 
all status in Canada.

The Palestinian refugees in Lebanon are forbidden from owning property, working 
in over 70 professions, receiving proper health care, and moving and traveling 
freely. These are only a few of the persecutory measures and discriminatory 
restrictions the Palestinian refugees have to face. Moreover, the intensified 
mistreatment of Palestinian refugees inside the camps has left their lives in 
real and immediate peril.

Those Palestinians who have escaped the dire situation in the Occupied 
Territories, face daily terror at the hands of the Israeli state, which 
continues to enforce a deadly and illegal military occupation of Palestine.

Palestinian refugees from the Occupied Territories have fled from the killings, 
extra-judicial assassinations, house demolitions, illegal arrests, trials 
without evidence, torture, land confiscation, and constant humiliations.

I write this letter also to draw attention to the crisis of deportation facing 
Palestinian refugees in Montreal, who have been forced by Immigration Canada to 
live underground and live without status in Canada, who after being stateless 
Palestinian refugees all their lives, have again been forced by the Canadian 
government into a life of stateless limbo.

Given this context I am writing you in support of the demands of the
Coalition Against the Deportation of Palestinian Refugees that Citizenship
and Immigration Canada:

1) Immediately stop the deportations of Palestinian refugees.
2) Immediately regularize the status of all Palestinian refugees in Canada

Sincerely,


CC:

Paul Martin, Office of the Prime Minister of Canada:
Email: pm at pm.gc.ca
Fax: 613 941 6900

Michel Dorais, Deputy Minister of Immigration Canada:
Fax: 613 954 3509 or 613 954 5448

Rene D'Aoust, Immigration Canada Director of
Investigation & Removals:
Phone: 514 496-1238,
Fax: 514 496-1882

Monique Leclair, Director General
Immigration Canada Quebec Regional Office:
Fax: 514 496-3976

Andrew Telegdi: Chair of Standing Committee on
Citizenship & Immigration
Email: telega at parl.gc.ca

Bill Siksay: NDP, Immigration Critic
Email: siksay.b at parl.gc.ca

Meili Faille, (Bloc Quebecois, Immigration Critic)
Email: Faille.M at parl.gc.ca

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