[van-announce] IMPORTANT! EVENTS AND ANNOUCEMENTS

[noii-van at resist.ca]

EVENTS AND ANNOUCEMENTS
PLEASE POST AND COME OUT IN SUPPORT !!!

1) Tent City Update: from APC
2) Bring Mohamed Cherfi home! National Day of Action: APRIL 5
3) Action in Solidarity with Palestinian Refugees: APRIL 8
4) FORUM: Solidarity w/ Stateless Palestinian Refugee in Vancouver: APRIL 9
5) Report from Montreal Protestors disrupting Immigration Conference
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Tent City Over for Tonight, but Not Defeated

The homeless people and their supporters who occupied the greenspace at
Union and Gore are bedding down in the DERA building across the street for
the night.  But this is not the end of the tent city.

On Saturday, April 3rd there we will be meeting at Victory Square at noon
to march to the Vancouver Public Library where COPE is holding their
Annual General Meeting.

We demand:
1. The city let us use the greenspace for a tent city.
2. The Vancouver Status of Women have their city funding restored.

contact: apc at resist.ca
_________________________________________________________________

IN SOLIDARITY WITH MOHAMED CHERFI

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MONDAY APRIL 5TH
CIC OFFICES 300 WEST GEORGIA
@ NOON
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Mohamed Cherfi's next hearing in the US is on April 7th. We have to
continue to pressure the government to make sure he is not deported from
the US and returned safely home to Canada. We must win!

At the last highly effective rally in Vancouver on Friday March 26th,
police demonstrated excessive force upon one immigrant activist. Upon the
demand of CIC security, police encircled him within seconds and he was
arrested on a charge of trespass despite the fact that the group was never
collectively asked to leave the premises. Given the resounding resistance
of all those gathered in the CIC lobby and by-standers, the police dropped
the charge and released him within half an hour. It is becoming clear that
CIC is resorting to obvious intimidation tactics given the increasing
support for Mohamed Cherfi and refugee rights in general.

WE WILL BE BACK! At the next rally on April 5th, we have to ensure an even
stronger presence at CIC in support of Mohamed Cherfi. Bring
pots/pans/megaphones.

pictures at http://vancouver.indymedia.org/news/2004/03/120668.php

FOR MORE INFO: noii-van at resist.ca
 __________________________________________________________________

SOLIDARITY WITH PALESTINIAN
REFUGEES FACING DEPORTATION

Thursday April 8th @ noon
Citizenship & Immigration Canada
300 West Georgia

A national day of action will bring the struggle of around 100
Palestinian refugees facing deportation from Canada to the streets of
major Canadian cities. Several deportations of stateless Palestinian
refugees are set to be executed in the coming days, and many more in the
coming weeks. With your participation and collective support we can halt
these deportations. The stateless Palestinian refugees - who have
self-organized as the Coalition Against the Deportation of Palestinian
Refugees in Montreal - will continue their struggle against Citizenship &
Immigration Canada's attempt to deport them to the illegal and deadly
Israeli military occupation which plagues daily life throughout Occupied
Palestine and to the violence, poverty and persecution, which defines
daily life in the Palestinian refugee camps throughout Lebanon.

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FORUM WITH A PALESTINIAN REFUGEE IN VANCOUVER

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FRIDAY APRIL 9 @ 6:30 PM
PALESTINE COMMUNITY CENTER
1874 KINGSWAY (corner Victoria)
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Osama, a Palestinian refugee living in Vancouver, was recently denied
refugee status. Osama has been unable to live any semblance of a normal
life, having faced the occupation as a young teenager, and since then
constantly on the move in the hopes of starting a new and secure life.
Osama’s city, Qalqil-ya, is now completely surrounded by the so-called
security wall, a wall that is 25 feet high that separates the city from
the outside world.

Osama’s judge, Barbara Hodgins, ruled that he was JORDANIAN and therefore
could return to Jordan without any risk, despite the fact that all his
documents prove that he is Palestinian. Osama had more than adequate
proof, as per the IRB’s own reference book about Palestinian refugees,
such as his passport, his passing card from the West Bank, registration
with UNRWA and more.

There is no doubt that Palestinian refugees qualify under every test set
forth by the Geneva Convention. Certainly, Canada has constantly
recognized that Palestinian refugee claimants living under a brutal and
military occupation are systematically humiliated and denied their basic
rights. The denial of Osama of his identity as a Palestinian refugee is a
blatant violation by the IRB and reveals the discrimination against
Palestinian refugees.

It is time for us to support Isama and hundreds of others in this city
fighting against CIC for their right to life and self-determination.

FOR MORE INFO: noii-van at resist.ca
 _______________________________________________________________________


-- Immigration Ministers too scared to face public

-- Non-status refugees interrupt policy-makers' conference

Thursday, March 25, MONTREAL -- Over forty demonstrators gathered in front
of the downtown Sheraton Center to demand the return of Mohamed Cherfi,
the regularization of all non-status persons and an end to deportations.
Inside the hotel, Canadian Immigration Minister Judy Sgro and Quebec
Immigration Minister Michelle Courchersne were scheduled to give the
opening address at a national conference entitled: Immigration and
Metropolis. One of the many banners read, "Du cas par cas, on en veut pas"
[rough translation: "We don't want to be treated in a
case-by-case fashion"], as people shouted: "Bring Mohamed Home! Deport
Courchesne!"

The demonstrators tried to enter the Sheraton through the front door. Some
were successful in getting in, but were brutally pushed out by Sheraton
security guards and Montreal police officers. One policeman punched a
protester, while people continued to chant in the lobby of the hotel.

Fifteen riot police arrived in full gear, but security guards already had
locked the hotel doors. Protestors continued to rally outside. The riot
police retreated and entered the hotel from behind. One
disappointed policeman said, "I just got dressed!"  A dozen policemen came
out onto the sidewalk to station themsleves on the west side. Riot police
reappeared in the lobby, but retreated once they noticed that the doors
were locked.

Meanwhile, in the ballroom of the Sheraton Hotel, members of the Action
Committee for Non-Status Algerians (CASS) and No One Is Illegal-Montreal
(NOII), spontaneously interrupted the welcoming address and shattered the
panelists' efforts to paint Canada and Quebec's immigration regime as an
international example of tolerance and fairness. Despite the MC's
patronizing comments to silence and marginalize the protestors, the
government's blatant hypocrisy was exposed.  Not only did Federal
Immigration Minister, Judy Sgro, cancel her public appearance, but Quebec
Immigration Minister, Michelle Courchesne, left the building to avoid
being confronted.

For the second time in less than a week, Courchesne has cancelled a public
apprearence to avoid the public outcry demanding the return of Mohamed
Cherfi, spokesperson for the Action Committee on Non-Status Algerians, who
was illegally arrested and deported to the USA on March 5, 2004.

As members of No One Is Illegal unfurled a banner, "Bring Mohamed
home!", Fawzi Hoceini of the CASS spoke to a crowd of over 700
conference delegates from NGOs, governmental departments and community
groups. He denounced the goverment's brutal treatment of non-status
Algerians who are excluded from Quebec's special joint-program --
implemented to provide another legal procedure by which to gain
residency. Another CASS member -- a mother of five Canadian-born
children ranging from 2-9 years old, and who has lived in Canada over 11
years -- also approached government officials to demand a just solution
for her family.

Like Mohamed Cherfi, there are approximately 150 men, women and children
who have been rejected or simply denied access to the special program and
still face deportation.

The mother of five wanted to bring attention to the fact that her family
is excluded because of an incident in which her innocent husband
inadvertently payed a Bell telephone bill with a counterfeit $20 bill.
Counselled by his negligent lawyer, he pleaded guilty to a counterfeit
charge. Despite his innocence, and despite the well-known problem of
counterfeit currency in circulation in Montreal, her husband paid the
required $400 fine. This has been used as grounds to deny her family the
right to remain in the only country her children have ever known.

The government is excluding people convicted for minor crimes, imposing a
double penalty on those who have already purged their crime through the
judicial system, and now must pay by being deported to a country where
they risk their lives. The family is suffer the devastating
consequences of their lawyer's carelessness.

Once the protestors left the ballroom, some conference participants
confronted the panelists and validated the voice of non-status persons. A
representative of "sans-papiers" in Europe, of African descent,
pointed out the all-white panel and challenged the legitimacy in
speaking on these issues. Other delegates pushed for a real debate about
the "sans-papiers" in Montreal.

The demonstration outside finally ended and people began to disperse. The
police then came out to tell the remaining protestors that Minister
Courchesne had left the building through an underground tunnel, proving
once again that they have no answers for refugees and the supporters of
Mohamed.

Since Mohamed's deportation, people have been organising across Canada to
directly confront government officials -- Prime Minister Paul Martin,
Immigration Ministers Judy Sgro and Michelle Courchesne, as well as Anne
McLellan, Minister for Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness -- to
demonstrate that there is no place to hide, and no means to silence the
voice of non-status peoples and their allies, who continue to organise and
resist the deportation and detention machine.

[by Francois Van Vliet and Sarita Ahooja]