CANADA: STOP JAILING AND DEPORTING REFUGEES, LET THEM STAY!
SUPPORT THE TAMIL MIGRANTS! SAY NO TO RACISM!
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Gather at corner of Kent and Laurier
(Citizenship and Immigration Canada)
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Join No One is Illegal to call for the immediate release of detained Tamil asylum seekers, and an end to racist and restrictive refugee policies. Justice, Freedom, and Status for All!
Surviving a journey, 500 Tamil refugees, including women and children, arrived in BC after fleeing war and persecution in Sri Lanka. When the ship first neared Equimault Harbour, in the territories of the Songhees First Nation, it was immediately boarded by the Armed Forces, Border Services, and RCMP. Families are now being separated, with many children being taken by the Ministry of Child and Family Development. The refugees now face the threat of incarceration and eventual deportation.
Canadian government officials and media outlets are perpetuating false and dehumanizing stereotypes of ‘illegals’, ‘terrorists’, and so-called queue-jumpers. The earlier arrival of 76 Tamil migrants on Ocean Lady was similarly sensationalized. This deliberately created hysteria appeals to prejudices of refugees as undesirable.
This fear-mongering is just another tactic used to disguise the racist policies that define Canada’s immigration and refugee system. The Canadian government was recently forced to apologize for its “keep Canada white” measures, such as the Komagata Maru incident. Yet Minister of Censorship and Deportation Jason Kenney continues to increase detentions and deportation of refugees and undocumented migrants, while bringing in more temporary exploitable migrant labour. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews recently declared that Cabinet is drafting new policies to clamp down on migrants and “make this country less welcoming for future shipments of human cargo.”
No One is Illegal-Ottawa asserts the basic human right to safety, mobility, and protection. It is well known that Tamils in Sri Lanka are fleeing military atrocities and mass displacement. The only crime the migrants have committed is transgressing this imposed settler-colonial border. We encourage you to join us in rejecting repressive, racist, and exclusionary ideologies and policies, and instead encourage compassion, solidarity, respect for life, and justice for all refugees. Release Detained Asylum-Seekers! Let the Boat Stay! Status for All!
LET THEM STAY
NO ONE IS ILLEGAL
No One is Illegal (NOII) Ottawa is a coalition of migrants and allies that advocates and fights for the rights, dignity, and respect of immigrants and refugees, as well as those living without status in Canada. we are against capitalism and we believe in abolishing borders. We call for Status For All.
We also stand in solidarity with the struggles of indigenous peoples for land, self-determination and sovereignty
Contact us: noiiottawa@gmail.com
For more information about No One Is Illegal visit www.nooneisillegal.org