[van-announce] UPDATE! Occupations in seven cities against Refugee Exclusion Act]

Wed Apr 4 13:47:29 PDT 2012

*Today, on Refugee Rights Day, Refugee rights activists are occupying
Conservative MP offices, Immigration and Canadian Border Services Agency
offices, and dropping banners in SEVEN cities*

*UPDATES*:

1) NOII Announcement linked here:
http://www.mediacoop.ca/newsrelease/10436

2) PHOTOS from the actions are linked here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nooneisillegal/

3) Live updates and pictures are being streamed through
https://www.twitter.com/NoOneIsIllegal
Please visit and share; you do not need a twitter account to access these.

4) Press release linked here: http://noii-van.resist.ca/?p=4789

*TODAY IS REFUGEE RIGHTS DAY:* In a coordinated effort on Refugee Rights
Day, members of refugee and immigrant rights groups including No One Is
Illegal are occupying Immigration/Canadian Border Services Agency offices
in Vancouver Coast Salish Territories. We received lots of support from
refugees who were in the offices at the same time, many with pending
deportation orders, many unaware of the horrific impacts of the proposed
Bill C31. Conservative MP offices are being occupied in Ottawa, Toronto,
St. Catharines and Edmonton. Banners have also been dropped in Montreal
and Halifax and Vancouver Coast Salish Territories. These actions are
being organized to demand that the Refugee Exclusion Act, Bill C-31, be
discarded.

*OFFICES BEING OCCUPIED*: Immigration and Canadian Border Services Agency
offices (300 West Georgia, Vancouver). Occupations of Conservative MP
offices are currently underway at John Baird's office (2249 Carling
Avenue, Ottawa), Ted Opitz's office (577 Burnhamthorpe Road, Unit 2,
Toronto), Rick
Dykstra's office (61 Geneva Street, St. Catharines), and Laurie Hawn's
office (11156 - 142nd Street, Edmonton).

*ABOUT THE REFUGEE EXCLUSION ACT*: The actions and occupations today are
part of a campaign against the Refugee Exclusion Act. The Refugee
Exclusion Act (Bill C-31) creates a two-tier system of refugee protection
that entrenches nationality-based discrimination, mandates jail for many
asylum seekers, denies and revokes permanent residency for many who have
already been granted refugee status, and violently targets and expels
refugees and migrants from Canada. This Act also introduces intrusive
biometrics data collection on all migrants and gives increased powers of
arrest and detention to border guards. This racist and repressive new bill
is a major roll-back on an already minimalist and exclusionary refugee
system.

*SOLIDARITY MESSAGE*: "The Lhe Lin Liyin of the grassroots Wet'suwet'en
supports No One Is Illegal in their effort to see the Refugee Exclusion
Act axed. The future generations amongst Indigenous, Refugee, and Settler
Societies have an opportunity today to make known that we all as a human
family require respect, compassion, a home to live in, and our status to
be complete and recognized. In a world faced with increased industrial
activity, intensifying climate change, and war mongering; refugees require
understanding, respect, and safety. The occupation of Canada does not
recognize the status of refugees and migrant peoples, but the Indigenous
peoples who are the true owners of these lands will!"

*BUILDING RESISTANCE*: As with opposition to the Tar sands & Enbridge
pipeline, Crime bill, public sector layoffs, and the Harper austerity
budget, escalated and wide-spread opposition is necessary to ensure
justice and dignity for refugees and migrants. The Refugee Exclusion Act
is part of a frightening trend towards temporariness - where through
shutting the door to permanent residency for refugees, family
sponsorships, and skilled workers, Canada is ensuring that migrants are
recruited primarily as indentured labour for big business. Hundreds of
asylum-seekers languish behind bars, while hundreds of thousands of
temporary workers and non-status people toil in fields and factories.
Canada and its economy is built on the theft of Indigenous lands and
resources locally and globally, and the exploitable (im)migrant labour of
those who have been displaced through capitalism and imperialism.  If the
Refugee Exclusion Act is passed, more migrants will choose precarious
means to get to Canada. Today we are sending a clear message to the Tories
that their laws and policies will be resisted at every turn and that we
will continue to offer our solidarity to migrants. No One Is Illegal,
Power to the People!

*ACT NOW!*

+ Today go on facebook or twitter, email or text a friend, talk about
Refugee Rights Day and the Refugee Exclusion Act. Help Break the Silence!
Use #noBillC31 #CdnImm #RefugeeExclusion For more ideas
http://bit.ly/H95QsJ

+ Learn more Joint NOII Statement - Axe the Refugee Exclusion Act:
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/no-one-illegal/2012/03/noii-alert-axe-refugee-exclusion-act

+ Sign & share Amnesty's appeal to MP's - easy way to send a message:
http://www.amnesty.ca/iwriteforjustice/take_action.php?actionid=843

+ Find your MP's contact info http://bit.ly/mfMkVq and call or write them.
Some sample letters http://scr.bi/GNtvx2  and http://is.gd/jCeRm6  and
http://bit.ly/HzFWYJ

+ Join No One Is Illegal. Find us at
www.facebook.com/NoOneIsIllegalNetwork
www.twitter.com/NoOneIsIllegal and www.nooneisillegal.org for updates and
events.

-- 
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Email: noii-van at resist.ca
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No One is Illegal-Vancouver Coast Salish Territories is a grassroots
anti-colonial migrant justice group with leadership from members of
migrant and/or racialized backgrounds. We strive and struggle for the
right to remain, the freedom to move, and the right to return. As a
movement for self-determination that challenges the ideology of
immigration controls, we take action to combat racial profiling, detention
and deportation, the national security apparatus, law enforcement
brutality, and exploitative working conditions of migrants. The ongoing
apartheid reality instituted through reserves and sweatshops is one that
must be fundamentally uprooted and transformed. We envision a humanity
where everyone has the right to sustenance and the ability to provide it,
where we are free of oppression, misery, and exploitation, and are able to
live meaningfully in relationship to one another and in reverence for
Mother Earth that sustains us.

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-- 
Harsha Walia

https://twitter.com/HarshaWalia
https://www.facebook.com/nooneisillegal
http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/author/dtes-power-women-group

-- 
Harsha Walia

https://twitter.com/HarshaWalia
https://www.facebook.com/nooneisillegal
http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/author/dtes-power-women-group

-- 
Harsha Walia

https://twitter.com/HarshaWalia
https://www.facebook.com/nooneisillegal
http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/author/dtes-power-women-group