[Wamvan] We did it! One episode of Border Security off the air, the series to go.

[Harsha W.]

Congratulations, we did it! CBSA and Force Four Force have confirmed that
footage from the immigration raid on March 13 won’t be broadcast!

A recent Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) memo cites “negative
public response.” Thank you to everyone who signed petitions, endorsed
letters, wrote and called the producers and broadcasters, spread the word
and took action!

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Share the news on FB:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=368987433218306&set=a.271182039665513.63321.153945524722499&type=1&theater

Or linked here on the web:
http://noii-van.resist.ca/?p=5638

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Diana Thompson, an Indigenous woman whose husband Tulio Renan Hernandez
was filmed and has since been deported to Honduras, says “We all feel
extremely relieved by the news and are grateful to everyone who spoke out.
We want this episode and the whole show cancelled.”

This briefing memo, just released through an access-to-information
request, also states that CBSA President Luc Portelance has now placed
limitations on the filming of Inland Enforcement activities to situations
involving individuals wanted for “serious criminality” or those featured
on CBSA’s “most wanted” list. CBSA believes that this will “continue to
highlight inland enforcement work while removing the key issue at play.”

While this new CBSA directive is a result of the strength and momentum of
our collective pressure, the key issues continue to remain at play:

1) The series is embedded within CBSA and tells a one-sided narrative. 
The approval by Prime Minister Harper and Minister Toews to fund a private
commercial production, as well as the fact that this new directive comes
from CBSA and not the production company, show that the CBSA and Harper
government have editorial control over this disgusting for-profit reality
TV series and use it to amplify Tory propaganda. At least $220,000 of
public funds are being spent on salary and travel expenses for CBSA staff
to escort Force Four film crews.

2) This new directive only applies to Inland Enforcement – away from the
border – yet most episodes are filmed at the border, where hundreds of
people, including vulnerable migrants, cross daily under varying
circumstances or are in the process of migration.

3) Lack of free consent continues to be a broad-based concern. It is
highly questionable whether anyone filmed for this show – whether at the
border or inland, whether migrant or citizen, whether Indigenous or
visitor – is giving free and informed consent to being filmed while under
the control of CBSA. This is the key issue behind a legal complaint to the
federal Privacy Commissioner and is a main concern of the Canadian Bar
Association. This recent memo claims that “all procedures and protocols
were followed correctly” to obtain consent in the filming of the
immigration raid, despite the fact that at least one worker who was filmed
has publicly stated that he felt pressured to give consent because he was
detained!

4) This directive to only film migrants inland who “have serious criminal
records” or “are on the most wanted list” carries serious long-term
impacts of criminalizing migrant communities. In the context of
increasingly exclusionary policies at the federal level, including for
example mandatory detention for many refugees, it perpetuates the racist
stereotype of migrants and people of colour as those to be suspicious of.
Furthermore, CBSA’s “most wanted” list is the subject of a federal Privacy
Complaint and has been condemned by groups including Canadian Council for
Refugees, Canadian Civil Liberties Association, Amnesty International, and
Refugee Lawyers Association. When CBSA could not get sufficient numbers of
cases on this list, they broadened the criteria to include people who
don’t even have deportation orders against them! To now bring up this list
is clearly fear-mongering.

CBSA’s memo states that “negative public response may continue,”
suggesting they know how fundamentally problematic Border Security is and
that tens of thousands of us will not stop until this series is cancelled.
The Canadian Bar Association has released an unprecedented letter urging
Minister Toews to withdraw CBSA’s participation in the show, and a legal
complaint to the federal Privacy Commissioner has been filed by the BC
Civil Liberties Association. Over 250 cultural professionals, over 90
community, advocacy and legal organizations, as well as a petition with
over 24,000 signatures are all calling for this unethical production’s
cancellation!

One episode down, a series to go. We can do this, together. This is our
collective victory and our collective struggle to continue. Deportation is
not Entertainment, Cancel Border Security!