STATUS FOR ALL

A march for immigrant justice, and against poverty, racism & racial profiling

SUNDAY, MAY 4th, 12:30pm
Starting Point: Corner of Victoria & Van Hornein COTE-DES-NEIGES
(metro Plamondon, Van Horne exit)
This is a child-friendly demonstration.
Food and drinks will be available.
There will be vehicles on-hand for those with reduced mobility.

As part of a National Day of Action for immigrant rights, Solidarity Across Borders is again taking to the streets, with our allies, to demand justice and dignity for all migrants. In opposition to deportations and detentions, we demand STATUS FOR ALL! There is no such thing as an "illegal" human being, only illegitimate laws and governments. Daily, we resist deportations and detentions, we fight for justice in the workplace, we demand safe and secure housing, and we oppose racism and racial profiling. In contrast to the xenophobia promoted by the false"reasonable accommodation" debate in Quebec, we take to the streets to celebrate our collective struggles for justice and dignity in all its diversity and strength. This year, we march through the streets of Cote-des-Neiges, a predominantly poor, working class and immigrant neighbourhood. Our march will mark the culmination of "Mayworks!", a festival of working class and immigrant culture, organized by the Immigrant Workers Center (IWC). Our march is also part of the Mayday tradition, as we celebrate the struggles of working people locally and throughout the world. Join us - with your friends, family, co-workers and neighbours - on Sunday, May 4, and add your voice and presence to the growing numbers of people in Montreal and beyond who are demanding "STATUS FOR ALL!"

*READ BELOW *
for more info about how you can help support the march. The poster for the May 4 Status for All march is linked at:http://solidarityacrossborders.blogspot.com/2008/04/affiches.html

Organized by Solidarity Across Borders, in collaboration with the Immigrant Workers Center(IWC) and Mayworks!*

Endorsed and supported by:
The"Accommodate This!" Campaign * Les Apatrides Anonymes * L'Association deslocataires de Villeray (ALV) * Bloquez l'empire Montréal * Le Centre desfemmes d'ici et d'ailleurs * Center for Philippine Concerns * Le CollectifOpposé à la brutalité policière (COBP) * Le Comité pour les droits humainsen Amérique latine (CDHAL) * Le Comité des sans-emploi Montréal-centre * Committee in support of Abdelkader Belaouni * La Coalition Justice pour AdilCharkaoui * La Coalition Justice pour Anas * DIRA Bibliothèque Anarchiste * Ici La Otra Montréal * Justice for Mohamed Harkat Committee * Lamour Workers Support Committee * March 8th Committee of Women of Diverse Origins * Midnight Kitchen * No One Is Illegal-Montreal * People's Global Action Bloc (Montréal & Ottawa) * La Pointe Libertaire * PINAY (The Filipina Women's Organization of Montreal) * Projet Accompagnement Solidarité Colombie (PASC)* Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG Concordia & McGill)*Q-Team Montréal * Les Sorcières * South Asian Women's Community Center (SAWCC) * STELLA Sex Workers Organization * Tadamon! Montréal * Tamil Elders Association of Quebec * Tamil Women's Association of Quebec * Union Localede Montréal - NEFAC

INFO:
sansfrontieres@resist.ca
514-848-7583

For background to previous migrant justice marches in Montreal (2003-2007), visit:http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2008/01/montrealmigrantjusticemarches2003-2007.html

*ENDORSE & MOBILIZE!*
We encourage your group and organization to endorse the May 4 "STATUS FORALL" demonstration, and to mobilize within your networks. If you endorse the demonstration, please let us know at sansfrontieres@resist.ca or514-848-7583. We also encourage you to announce the demonstration on your e-mail lists, blogs and websites, and at your meetings and events. If you would like to invite someone from Solidarity Across Borders to address your group, please get in touch! We can offer presentations about issues concerning migration, poverty and racism, ranging from 10 minutes to full 2-hour workshops. If you need flyers and posters to mobilize within your networks, you canvisit QPIRG-Concordia (1500 de Maisonneuve Ouest, #204, métro Guy-Concordia,tel: 514-848-7583) or the Immigrant Workers Center (6420 Victoria, #9, métroPlamondon, tel: 514-342-2111). We also have promotional materials in Spanish, Arabic, Tagalog, Tamil, Farsi, Russian and other languages; get in touch to access these materials.

*GET INVOLVED!*
We encourage you to get involved in the organizing of the May 4 "STATUS FORALL" march and demonstration. We have an active OUTREACH committee that is meeting people door-to-door in the Cote-des-Neiges area, as well as actively flyering and postering throughout Montreal. As well, we have an ART committee that will be creating images and banners to carry our message during the demonstration. To get involved, e-mail sansfrontieres@resist.ca or phone 514-848-7583. You can also meet us face-to-face at our weekly meetings at the Immigrant Worker's Center (6420 Victoria, #9, métro Plamondon), on MONDAY, APRIL 21 and MONDAY, APRIL 28 at 6:30pm. We also encourage you to join us at our next COMMUNITY DINNER this FRIDAY, APRIL 18 at 6:30pm at the Cote-des-Neiges Community Center (5347 cheminCôte-des-Neiges, métro Côte-des Neiges). There will be tasty food, music, films and good company, as we together share our struggles of resistance andsurvival.

*JOIN A CONTINGENT/ORGANIZE A CONTINGENT!*
The Status for All March will include several contingents in support of immigrant justice that will also highlight issues supported by SolidarityAcross Borders. Confirmed contingents include: The

RED UMBRELLA Bloc: The red umbrella symbolizes opposition to violence against sex workers, including migrant sex workers. Organized by Stella, a sex workers' support and justice organization, by and for sex workers. Info: stellappp@videotron.ca

The PINK Bloc: The pink bloc is a contingent made up of queer-trans-allies marching as members of, and in solidarity with, migrant communities. We are committed to understanding systems of power and domination as interlinked. We're coming out, in pink, to denounce all oppressions, and demand status for all!! Folks are invited to wear pink and join the pink bloc! Organized by Q-Team. Info: qteam@riseup.net

JUSTICE FOR ADIL Bloc: The Justice For Adil Bloc will highlight oppositionto racial profiling, Islamophobia secret trials and two-tiered justice. Organized by the Justice for Adil Charkaoui Coalition. Info: justiceforadil@riseup.net

JUSTICE FOR KADER Bloc: Kader Belaouni, a refugee claimant originally from Algeria, has been in sanctuary in the Saint-Gabriel's Church in Point-St-Charles for more than two years. Kader can't attend the Status forAll demonstration, but his supporters will, marching together as part of the Justice for Kader Bloc. Organized by the Committee to Support Abdelkader Belaouni. Info: soutienkader@gmail.com

The PALESTINE SOLIDARITY Bloc: In opposition to Israeli apartheid, in support of Palestinian refugees, and in defence of the right of return of all Palestinians to their homeland, we will march together as part of the Palestine Solidarity Bloc. Organized by Tadamon! Montreal. Info:tadamon@resist.ca

*MAYWORKS!*
The Status for All March is the culmination of Mayworks, a festival of working class and immigrant culture, based in Cote-des-Neiges, taking place between April 25 to May 4. The full Mayworks! program is linked at:http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2008/04/mayworks-montreal-2008-full-schedule-of.html

Immigrant rights are workers rights! No borders, no nations, stop the deportations!

2 things

#1

Lic. Eduardo Medina-Mora Icaza
Procurador General de la Republica
Procuraduría General de la República
Paseo de la Reforma nº 211-213, Piso 16,
Col. Cuauhtémoc, Del. Cuauhtémoc
México D.F., C.P. 06500, Mexico

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Dear Attorney General,

I am writing to you today because I am concerned for the safety of Lydia Cacho. Lydia Cacho is a journalist and the author of Los Demonios del Edén.

On May 7th, Lydia Cacho escaped what seems to have been an attempt on her life.

I call on the authorities to order a full review of the protection provided for Lydia Cacho, in order to guarantee her safety. Please launch a full, impartial, and prompt investigation into the apparent attempt to cause the vehicle in which she was travelling to crash. Please ensure the results of this investigation are made public.

Sincerely and Respectfully,

Timothy Schwinghamer

654 Upper Leitches Creek Road
Upper Leitches Creek NS B2A 4B5

Cc:
His Excellency Emilio Goicoechea Luna, Ambassador for Mexico, 45 O'Connor Street, Suite 1000, Ottawa ON K1P 1A
Centro Integral de Atención a las Mujeres - CIAM Cancún A.C., Calle 12 poniente · 66 SMZA 63 Cancún, Quintana Roo 77500, México

#2

To: Finley.D@parl.gc.ca, Day.S@parl.gc.ca
Cc: justiceforadil@riseup.net

Dear Diane Finley and Stockwell Day,

I am writing to express my urgent concern about Adil Charkaoui and call on you to conduct a fair and transparent review of the security certificate that was issued against Adil Charkaoui in May 2003.

The security certificate against Mr. Charkaoui has never been upheld by any court. Mr. Charkaoui's case has been suspended since March 2005 when the government was forced to withdraw a key decision on the risk Charkaoui faces if deported to Morocco.

What is known of the case against Mr. Charkaoui rests largely on information apparently provided by three individuals to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. In 2004, the Federal Court agreed to set aside information from Abu Zubaydah in Mr. Charkaoui's file in light of testimony and reports that Zubaydah had been tortured while in US custody in Afghanistan and later held in a secret site with no oversight or accountability. In Feb 2005, Radio Canada made public a letter from Noureddine Nafiaâ, a second informer in Mr. Charkaoui's case, who wrote from a prison in Morocco recanting his confession, stating that he had signed his 'confession' blind-folded and under torture.

Finally, two weeks ago, it was revealed that Ahmed Ressam's information against Mr. Charkaoui was fabricated. Ahmed Ressam wrote a letter published by the Journal de Montréal on 20 April 2007 that information he provided against Mr. Charkaoui was false: "What I said to the investigators... was not true... I was confonted with difficult psychological circumstances, I did not know what I was saying."

Thus all the publically disclosed information against Mr. Charkaoui has been discredited, making it impossible to retain confidence in CSIS’s case and the highly secretive Security Certificate regime, which denies non-citizens their basic right to due process.

Mr. Charkaoui spent almost two years in prison (from May 2003 to February 2005) and has spent a further two years under conditions that Amnesty International has qualified as "among the most restrictive ever imposed in Canada" and that affect the freedom of his entire family. Four years without charge, under an unconstitutional process, on the basis of evidence that lacks all credibility, is far too long. It is time for the Ministers to act. As you have the power to act on this matter, I demand that you conduct a fair and transparent review of Charkaoui's file in order to withdraw the faulty certificate, to lift the restrictions on his liberty, and to clear his name. This is clearly warranted in light of Ahmed Ressam’s retraction and considering that previous evidence on file was produced by torturous means. Furthermore, given that the Supreme Court of Canada decision found the security certificate regime to be unconstitutional, I demand that the government act immediately to completely abolish the fundamentally unjust security certificate regime.

Sincerely,

To: day.s@parl.gc.ca

Dear Stockwell Day,

My name is Timothy Schwinghamer. I am a graduate student at the University of Manitoba. I am contacting you because I am very concerned for the health of Mahmoud Jaballah, Mohammad Mahjoub, and Hassan Almrei. They are on a hunger strike in protest of the conditions of their detention. All five men were arrested under Security Certificates, a measure of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) that has been described by Amnesty International as fundamentally flawed and unfair. Security certificates and secret evidence reverse the fundamental rule of innocent until proven guilty. Neither the detainee nor his lawyer are informed of the precise allegations or provided with the full information against him. They are imprisoned indefinitely without charges on secret evidence and face deportation to their countries of origin, even if there is a substantial risk of torture or death. Please immediately close the Kingston Immigration Holding Centre; release Canada's secret trial security certificate detainees or provide them with a fair, transparent, open trial; end all proceedings to deport the Secret Trial Five (Mahmoud Jaballah, Mohammad Mahjoub, Hassan Almrei, Mohamed Harkat, Adil Charkaoui); abolish security certificates and end deportation to torture; immediately condemn the illegal Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.

Secret trials are a wound to Canadian democracy.

Sincerely and respectfully,

What happened at CSIS today

Six people were arrested today following a sit-in in the lobby of the building that houses the Toronto offices of Canada's national spy agency, CSIS. The group, made up of folks from Burlington, Hamilton, Dundas, Durham, and Toronto, had been seeking a meeting to discuss the secret "evidence" which has been used to detain five Muslim men a collective 164 months, or 13 and a half years, behind Canadian prison bars without charge or bail.

Sponsored by the Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada, the group chose the date of October 20 because it marks three years in solitary confinement for secret trial detainee Hassan Almrei, a Syrian refugee held in Toronto's Metro West Detention Centre and one of the five Muslim men currently detained without charge or bail. Next week in Ottawa, secret trial detainee Mohamed Harkat will attend the public portion of his secret trial, after which the judge will retire with CSIS and government lawyers to discuss the evidence (if any exists) without Harkat and his lawyer present. Mohammad Mahjoub, held since June 2000 in Toronto, is currently in solitary confinement; Mahmoud Jaballah has been detained since August,2001, and Adil Charkaoui detained since May, 2003.

"We sit here because we have tried just about every channel available to us," the group wrote in a statement. "But time is not on ourside. These men are shadows of their former selves, often broken in body,and scarred in spirit. Their families are traumatized, their communities fearful. And each day they wake brings the same nagging question: why are they being held behind bars, and why is Canada attempting to deport them totorture?

"We sit here not because we despair, but because we hope. Perhaps our willingness to take some risk, to practice some truth-seeking, Gandhian non-violence, will open some minds, some hearts, some souls, to the crime ofsecret trials in Canada and the pain they have inflicted on individuals, families, communities."

The group were charged with failure to leave premises when directed as well as engaging in a prohibited activity on private property and released shortly after their arrests. Those arrested and charged are Kirsten Romaine, Rae Mitchell, Diana Ralph, Chris Shannon, Barney Barningham and Matthew Behrens.

About ten people entered the lobby shortly after 11 am and sat on benches that they imagined were for... well... sitting. Security came within a few minutes to ascertain why they were sitting on those benches.

"Because benches are made to be sat upon," explained one. A member of the group called upstairs to CSIS requesting that a meeting be held immediately to discuss transfer of the secret "evidence" to the lawyers of the detainees, so they can defend their clients. Other security officials showed up to make extensive explanations about the fact that, even though CSIS is a federal government agency, it is housed in a building that is "private property."

Police were eventually called in and, after asking them almost a dozen times to leave, were eventually forced to make arrests.

One particularly interesting exchange between a resister and a police officer went like this:

officer: Well, you'll have your 15 seconds on the news tonight.
resister: I hope these men will be released.
officer: Are they illegal immigrants? What are the charges?
resister: No charges. They're refugees and permanent residents, and this could now be done to citizens.
officer: Well, it could be me or you next.
resister: Yes, it could be, that's why we're doing this. We're trying to generate public support for these men.
officer: I think it's very important tthat you're doing this. If the public doesn't know about this, these men could just disappear. It happened in Chile, it could happen here.
resister: We think they should get a fair and open trial so they can defend themselves. There must be checks and balances.
officer: I agree, there must be checks and balances.

Another arrestee reports that the arresting officer apologized for having to make the arrest, for after having heard about the reason for the protest, the officer felt a sense of shame that he would be hauling such folks out of the CSIS building.

The six plan to contest the charges, a right that thus far remains unavailable to the five secret trial detainees.

For more info: call (416) 651-5800, write Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada, PO Box 73620, 509 St. Clair Ave. West Toronto, ON M6C 1C0, click here, or email tasc@web.ca.