[Wamvan] Open Letter of Concern by Cultural Producers Regarding Border Security

[Harsha W.]

- please forward -

Award-Winning Artists and some of your Favourite Cultural Producers are
Taking a Stand!

* Share these links on social media and encourage others to sign on.

WEB:
http://www.cancelbordersecurity.ca/#!cultural-producers-letter/c1ken

​FB IMAGE:
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Artists and Cultural Producers’ Open Letter of Concern
Regarding the TV Series Border Security: Canada’s Front Line​


To Force Four Entertainment, Shaw Media, Global BC, National Geographic,
Canadian Border Services Agency, and all other producers, financiers, and
broadcasters of Border Security: Canada’s Front Line,

​
We are actors, performers, producers, directors, technicians and a wide
variety of cultural professionals who work across media platforms that
include film, TV, and live performance.

​On March 13, 2013 a film crew from Vancouver-based company Force Four
Entertainment was embedded with Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA)
agents during a raid at a construction site. They filmed eight workers
being arrested and jailed in a humiliating spectacle. The footage was shot
as part of an ongoing television series Border Security: Canada’s Front
Line.

​Several of the men arrested have since been deported, and their families
have been torn apart.

​We write this letter out of serious concern for those already affected
and those who may be harmed by future episodes of this show. Border
Security makes no effort to show the lived realities or perspectives of
those featured in the show. Rather, it packages and sells entertainment
made from genuine human crisis and humiliation, particularly of those who
are vulnerable migrants and refugees. This show is based on
sensationalizing their stories and spreading fear.

At best, this TV show is an invasion of privacy with questionable ethics
on informed consent. At worst, it can put the lives of refugee claimants
and their families at risk by commercially exploiting their stories for
broadcast. As Amnesty International notes, “Amnesty International believes
that filming and broadcasting these raids has jeopardized the basic rights
of these undocumented workers, as protected under the international
conventions that Canada has ratified.”

​This comes at a time when there is little quality television that deals
with the real-life pressures that force people to migrate. We also find it
extremely troubling that the federal government has approved of and
dedicates resources to this production. This is not the Canadian
entertainment or cultural production that so many are proud to call their
own.

​We are calling on Force Four, CBSA, Shaw Media, and Global TV to end
production of Border Security, and all associated partners to withdraw
their support for the show. Deportation is not entertainment. We seek to
uphold legally-affirmed human rights and respect for basic human dignity. 
Please join us in our efforts towards being conscious and ethical cultural
producers.

Sincerely,

​Hauke Boettcher, Independent Filmmaker and Editor
Nicola Cavendish, Actor and Playwright
Stéfanie Clermont, Documentary Filmmaker
Amber Dawn, Film Festival Programmer and Author
Ruby Smith Díaz, Filmmaker
Farzana Doctor, Coproducer and Author
Jadis Dumas, Documentary Filmmaker
Jesse Freeston, Independent Filmmaker and Journalist
Damien Gillis, Documentary Filmmaker
Malcolm Guy, Director and Producer
Audrey Huntley, Independent Documentary Filmmaker
Ali Kazimi, Filmmaker
Sara Kendall, Performance Artist and Filmmaker
Bonnie Klein, O.C. (Order of Canada), Filmmaker
Naomi Klein, Filmmaker and Writer
Erica Køhn, Artistic Director and Filmmaker
Min Sook Lee, Filmmaker
Diana Leung, Filmmaker and Cultural Planner
Avi Lewis, Documentary Filmmaker and TV Host
Alex Mah, Filmmaker
Amy Miller, Director and Producer
Cecily Nicholson, Artist and Arts Administrator
Isaac Oomen, Filmmaker and Journalist
Summer Pervez, Filmmaker and Professor
Imtiaz Popat, Producer, Monkeyking Motion Pictures
Vanessa Richards - Artist and Cultural Worker
Velcrow Ripper, Filmmaker
Emilio Rojas, Filmmaker and Performance Artist
Rupinder Singh Sidhu, Composer and Producer
Kim Villagante, Multimedia Artist and Singer-Songwriter
Mark Vonesch, Director of Reel Youth
Harsha Walia, Independent Filmmaker and Writer
Shannon Walsh, Director and Writer
Maggie Wheeler, Actor
D Lee Williams, Filmmaker and Artist
Sandy Wilson, Film Director and Screenwriter
Marcus Youssef, Actor and Playwright
Alejandro Zuluaga, Documentary Filmmaker

... ADD YOUR NAME HERE!

To add your name to this letter please email: info at cancelbordersecurity.ca


Please include your position as a cultural producer and, if you would
like, a quote that we might use in our appeal to CBSA, Force Four,
National Geographic, Shaw Media, and Global TV to end this show.




-- 
Harsha Walia

https://twitter.com/HarshaWalia
https://www.facebook.com/NoOneIsIllegalNetwork



-- 
Harsha Walia

https://twitter.com/HarshaWalia
https://www.facebook.com/NoOneIsIllegalNetwork