From: sans frontieres!
In less than one week hundreds of non-status people and their supporters will be undertaking a historic one-week long march from Montreal to Ottawa to demand a full regularization program for refugees and non-status people be implemented immediately. The march will pass through the Cote des Neiges neighbourhood of Montreal, the Mohawk community of Kanehsatake on whose land we're marching, along the north shore of the Ottawa river and up to the front doors of the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa.
But will the politicians hear us coming?
Less than two months ago non-status members of Solidarity Across Borders confronted Minister Volpe outside of a Press Conference in Montreal. The Minister played the politician, refusing to address their specific cases and responding with meaningless words when questioned about regularization. This is not enough! Solidarity Across Borders has issued a letter to Minister Volpe demanding that he deal with the situation of non-status people with more than half-measures and words (see below). We demand that he meet with the No One Is Illegal March on Ottawa and come face to face with the people his Ministry excludes on a daily basis. We demand that he recognize the need for a full and inclusive regularization program as outlined in our 12 Principles for Regularization.
Not everyone can participate in our march for eight days but you can still support the march and our demands. In the coming days before the march begins on Saturday June 18 we ask all of our supporters to call-in to Minister of Immigration Joe Volpe and their local M.P to demand that they show the march the respect that it deserves by meeting with the refugees who make the trek when they arrive on Parliament Hill on the afternoon of June 25 and to express their support for a regularization program without restrictions- a program that would make no one illegal.
To see the 12 Principles for regularization visithttp://www.solidarityacrossborders.org/en/principles?PHPSESSID=9847fb011351dd8c050a97d5ad9f1e2b
Please email Minister of Immigration Joe Volpe at Minister@cic.gc.ca. To find contact information for your local MP visit: http://www.parl.gc.ca/common/SenatorsMembers_house.asp?Language=E&Parl=37&Ses=2&Sect=hoccur
Demand
1) That the Minister and all MPs meet the march on Parliament Hill when it arrives the afternoon of Saturday June 25;
2) That a full and inclusive regularization program be implemented immediately.
Be polite and patient, but also persistent. Make sure your message is heard loud and clear. For more information contact Solidarity Across Borders at sansfrontieres@resist.ca or visit http://www.solidarityacrossborders.org
BACKGROUND:
Letter to Minister of Immigration Joe Volpe from Solidarity Across Borders:
Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Joe Volpe,
We are contacting you from the Solidarity Across Borders coalition, a group composed of several committees of self-organized refugees from Algeria, Palestine, Congo, Colombia and elsewhere. As you should already be aware, we are a part of a growing movement of non-status people and their supporters organizing against the injustices handed down from your Ministry on a daily basis.Your Ministry has recently made policy changes and statements which suggest that you are considering implementing a partial regularization program for non-status people living in Canada. As a group that has organized around community-wide issues and individual cases we welcome any moves that allow more non-status people to be regularized and their lives made easier here in Canada.However, any partial regularization program will be no more than a band-aid, temporary solution; it will not solve the massive crisis in the lives of the thousands of non-status people within our borders. We also reject any regularization program that will create or aggravate the division of people into good immigrants and bad immigrants by highlighting certain industries and situations viewed as respectable in the eyes of your ministry while deepening the injustices against those you will leave out.In June of this year hundreds of refugees and non-status people will be embarking with allies on a march to challenge this exclusion. We will march for eight days, from downtown Montreal to Parliament Hill in Ottawa. We will march in defense of the position that no one is illegal, that no one is excludable. This march is more than another protest. It is a profound assertion of dignity and a cry for justice for non-status people.The demands of the march will be an end to the deportation and detention of migrants and refugees, the abolition of Security Certificates and a full regularization program that leaves not a single person behind, that makes no one illegal.This is not the first time in Canadian history that a group has sought to gain the attention of the public and the Government by marching to Ottawa, but this is a very historic occasion. It will be remembered as the first loud challenge to the public, the government, your ministry and you as minister for a fundamental change in the immigration policy of Canada. As hundreds march for their dignity and thousands of others support the march and live the realities that we will be challenging, we hope that you will grant the occasion and the individuals the respect that is deserved by receiving the march when it arrives on Parliament Hill on Saturday June 25 and initiate a dialogue around full regularization, free from empty promises and political posturing.-- Solidarity Across Bordershttp://www.solidarityacrossborders.org514-859-9023sansfrontieres@resist.ca
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