[tadamon-l] Montreal: Act Now to Fight the Deportation of Palestinian Refugees.

[Tadamon!]

Montreal: Act Now to Fight the Deportation of Palestinian Refugees

One Week call/fax/email Campaign to Demand Status Now.
the Coalition Against the Deportation of Palestinian Refugees, Montreal.

http://tadamon.resist.ca/index.php/?p=430

As we enter 2007, the Coalition Against the Deportation of Palestinian 
Refugees marks its fourth year of fighting against the deportation of 
Palestinian refugees from Canada. We have, since early 2003, been publicly 
organizing to reverse the efforts of Immigration Canada to deport 
Palestinian refugees and for them instead to be granted permanent 
residency in Canada.

The year 2006 provided numerous examples of the arbitrariness and 
injustice with which Immigration Canada has treated the cases of the 
stateless Palestinian refugees in Canada. While two members of the 
Coalition received positive decisions on their applications for permanent 
residence on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, others were unjustly 
refused, and still more have been left in wait for years. Despite promises 
by Immigration Canada in November 2005 that their applications would be 
studied within weeks, more than 10 of those applications remain undecided 
and the lives of those affected continue in suspense, causing immeasurable 
anxiety and insecurity.

Immigration Canada also refused applications in at least three Palestinian 
cases in Montreal this past year, including an elderly couple whose 
children are legal residents of Canada, shattering their hopes of 
establishing themselves in Montreal and ending their life-long 
statelessness. Immigration also refused, for the third time, the 
Pre-Removal Risk Assessment (PRRA) of Osama fi Saleh Omar, who faces 
deportation to the West Bank. The Federal Court, for the third time, 
overturned Immigration's decision and ordered the file re-studied. Osama 
is now waiting for his fourth PRRA decision. He has not seen his wife and 
children for over five years.

Our struggle continues. Our demands remain the same:

1] Stop the deportation of Palestinian refugees;
2] Grant them permanent residence in Canada.

Act Now!

call/fax/email the Minister of Immigration, to Support our Demands.

Sample Letter Below

Diane Finley
Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada
Confederation Bldg, Room 707
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6
Telephone: (613) 996-4974
Fax: (613) 996-9749
Email: minister at cic.gc.ca

Sample Letter:

The Honorable Diane Finley

RE: Palestinian Refugees facing deportation

January 13th, 2006

I am writing in support of the Coalition Against the Deportation of 
Palestinian Refugees and to bring your attention to a situation that must 
be immediately remedied: Palestinian refugees in Canada continue to face 
imminent deportation to the Occupied Territories and to the refugee camps 
of Lebanon.

We are angered by the fact that the Canadian government would even 
consider deporting stateless Palestinians to the refugee camps and 
military occupation that they fled in search of peace and security in 
Canada. In Lebanon, Palestinian refugees are systematically prevented from 
owning property, working in dozens of professions, receiving proper health 
care, and accessing higher education. The conditions inside the camps are 
deplorable. The intensified mistreatment of Palestinian refugees inside 
the camps has left their lives in real and immediate peril. Moreover, the 
violence and poverty faced by Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza strip 
are so notorious that no government can pretend to be unaware. Palestinian 
refugees from the Occupied Territories have fled from the killings, 
extra-judicial assassinations, house demolitions, illegal arrests, 
torture, land confiscation, and constant humiliations

Yet Canada continues to threaten to deport stateless Palestinian refugees 
back to the Occupied Territories and the refugee camps in Lebanon.

We are writing to ask you to respect human rights and stop the injustice 
faced by those Palestinian refugees facing deportation from Canada. We ask 
you to:

[1] Stop the Deportations; and
[2] Grant them permanent residence in Canada.

In signing the United Nations Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness 
in 1978, the government of Canada championed the cause of stateless 
refugees. If Canada allows the deportation of Palestinians, it would be 
abdicating that responsibility. We are asking you as the Minister of 
Citizenship and Immigration Canada to act now and grant Palestinian 
refugees permanent resident status.

We thank you for your attention and efforts in this urgent matter.

Sincerely

cc: Office of the Prime Minister of Canada: pm at pm.gc.ca, Fax: 613-941-6900

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