[Sanctuarycity_hamilton] Updates about No 4 and 4 campaign and op ed - please respond asap

[Caitlin Craven]

Hi folks,

I just wanted to pass this call out along (below) to keep everyone posted
on how the campaign against the four and four rule is coming together.  If
you have any comments, let me know so I can pass them along.  Otherwise,
I'll start sending this out to supporting organizations tomorrow from the
Sanctuary City email.

Also, just wanted to check in about numbers for leafleting on Saturday. Is
everyone able to come out? I was thinking between 10-12 or 11-1 would make
the most sense.  We could meet at the MacNab terminal to get the flyers and
petitions divided up.

Finally, Blake and I have a draft of an op ed to send to the Hamilton Spec
attached here.  Please feel free to comment, change, correct, etc.  If you
could please get back to me by 3pm tomorrow that would be great as we
should try and get this to the editors as soon as possible.

Thanks all!!

Caitlin


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Syed Hussan (MWAC) <coordinator at migrantworkersalliance.org>
Date: 2015-02-23 10:50 GMT-05:00
Subject: Please fwd to appropriate contacts: Join the Campaign Against the
4 Year Limit on Migrant Workers!
To: Omar Chu <omarc at shaw.ca>
Cc: Jesson Reyes <reyes.jesson at gmail.com>, chris ramsaroop <
ramsaroopchris at gmail.com>, Caitlin Craven <caitlin.e.craven at gmail.com>,
Sharmeen Khan <colonized.mutant at gmail.com>, Levi Gahman <ivelrah at gmail.com>,
Mina Ramos <moominamur at gmail.com>, Liza Draman <lizadraman at yahoo.com>,
Marco Luciano <mluciano2 at gmail.com>, blake mccall <bwmccall at hotmail.com>


Join the Campaign Against the 4 Year Limit on Migrant Workers!

Starting February 28th, migrants and supporters across the country are
escalating the Cross - Canada Campaign Against the 4 Year Limit on Migrant
Workers! campaign to call on the Federal Government to reverse the four and
four rule.

When this rule comes into effect on April 1st, 2015, all low-waged migrant
workers employed under the Temporary Foreign Workers Program and Live-In
Caregiver / Caregiver Program who have worked in Canada for more than four
years will be banned from continuing to work in Canada and forced to leave.
They will also be barred from returning to Canada as workers for a further
four years.  Those that choose to stay will become undocumented.

These changes are effectively a mass deportation. These rules will tear
apart families, friends and communities across the country. Migrant workers
pay tens of thousands of dollars to come to Canada and work at minimum wage
jobs to provide an opportunity for their family; so that their children can
go to school; and to have a better life. The 4 & 4 rule strips away migrant
workers’ dignity, forces workers already in precarity into further
uncertainty, and imposes discriminatory and arbitrary barriers on how long
workers can stay here.

Working in Canada for four years proves that the workers are needed, and
that their work is permanent. These friends and community members deserve
permanent residence, not deportation. This 4 and 4 rule entrenches a
revolving door immigration policy, employers can simply replace current
with new workers.

We are writing to you today to join the Campaign! There are two ways to get
involved:

   1.

   Become a Campaign Organizer: This is for groups working directly with
   migrants across Canada that support the demands below and want to do public
   education, worker education and mass actions against the 4 & 4 rule. Please
   email back the person who sent you this letter and no4and4 at gmail.com to
   join the Campaign so you can be invited to our organizing conference calls.
   2.

   Endorse the Campaign! Unions, community, faith based and other allied
   organizations that support the demands below: Help us get the word out, get
   petition signatures, and mobilize your members to come to mass actions.
   Please email back the person who sent you this letter and
   no4and4 at gmail.com by February 27th to be listed as an endorser on the
   first round of materials.

DEMANDS

   1.

   An end to the 4 & 4 rule so migrant workers can continue to work here.
   2.

   Grant migrant workers in Canada permanent residency.
   3.

   Ensure migrant worker access to all social benefits and entitlements
   4.

   Enact legislation to grant permanent residency for all migrants upon
   arrival.

INITIAL ACTIONS: Pickets, rallies creative actions are planned in Edmonton,
Guelph, Hamilton, Toronto and Vancouver between Feb 28 and March 4th. Join
the campaign if you can organize an action in your city.

These actions will culminate in mass rallies across the country between
March 29th and April 01, 2015. Details to be announced.

Campaign Against the 4 Year Limit on Migrant Workers is comprised of
migrant worker groups and community organizations across Canada. Members as
of February 21, 2015 include Fuerza Puwersa (Guelph), Migrant Workers
Alliance for Change*, Migrante Alberta, No One Is Illegal - Vancouver,
Radical Action with Migrants in Agriculture (Okanagan Valley) and Sanctuary
City Hamilton.

*Migrant Workers Alliance for Change includes Alliance of South Asian Aid
Prevention (Toronto), Asian Community Aids Services (Ontario), Caregivers
Action Centre (Ontario), Industrial Accident Victims’ Group of Ontario,
Justicia for Migrant Workers (Ontario), KAIROS Canada, Legal Assistance of
Windsor, Migrante Ontario, No One Is Illegal – Toronto, Parkdale Community
Legal Services, Social Planning Toronto, UNIFOR (Canada), United Food and
Commercial Workers (Canada), Workers United and the Workers’ Action Centre
(Toronto)
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