Hypocrisy and racism underlie US, Canadian and European Union policy on refugees

By Diane Johnston

The difference in how the U.S., Canada and the European Union treat today’s Ukrainian refugees compared with migrant workers underscores the need to fight the increased racism and demand full and permanent immigration status for all.

Border stories: Anglo-European chauvinism and racism in dealing with Ukrainian refugees

Foreign students in Ukraine brutalized and terrorized at borders. Germany asks Poland to stop sending refugees. Oligarchs, MPs, neo-Nazis flee for their lives | Press review by TONY SEED*

African students await evacuation from Ukraine.

“Civilized” Europe is not only Russophobic but anti-Black and colonial.

Amid a deluge of reports and footage of racial discrimination in Ukraine, representatives from the Caribbean and Africa spoke to the unjust treatment of Ukrainian refugees of African origin during the debate on the UN General Assembly resolution concerning Ukraine. Videos showing Africans being pushed back from trains and border crossings have gone viral on social media (for example, here), causing an uproar and sparking statements of concern by African politicians and officials.

Migrants speak up against increasing racism, demand full & permanent immigration status for all

Oppose attacks on Canadians of Russian origin and their institutions

Developments of concern related to U.S./NATO war hysteria

– Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) –

All Saints Russian Orthodox Church vandalized

Shortly after services ended on February 27, red paint was poured on the front doors of the All Saints Russian Orthodox Church in Calgary. Security cameras showed that a man first tried to enter the building, and on finding the door locked poured paint on the doors.

Owners of a Calgary Russian food store and the Russian Spoon in Vancouver have spoken out about the threats they are receiving, and how this is impacting the mental health of the workers. News media report that these are far from isolated cases. Social media threats against Canadians of Russian origin are also being reported.

Dramatic rise in rejection of permanent residence application

In a July 14 press release the Migrant Rights Network reports that based on data provided by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, rejections of applications on the basis of Humanitarian and Compassionate grounds doubled from 35 per cent in 2019 to nearly 70 per cent in the first quarter of 2021. It also notes that “Humanitarian and Compassionate applications are the only opportunity for permanent residence — and therefore equal rights and safety — for undocumented migrants inside Canada.” Further, rejections increased “without any announced change in policy, at the same time as immigration levels in Canada saw a record downturn in 2020.”

Status for All. Montreal march kicked off this week’s actions

Over 200 people gathered at 11 am at Hector-Toe-Blake Park near Atwater Metro in Montreal on July 18 for a mass march kicking off a week of action to demand Status For All! The week of actions was organized by Solidarity Across Borders, the Migrant Rights Network and many other allies, including the Immigrant Workers Centre. The aim of the actions was to mobilize support for a comprehensive and ongoing regularization program for all migrants with precarious status.

September 20 Day of Action

The Trudeau Liberal government is developing a plan for COVID-19 recovery that they will announce when parliament reconvenes on September 23. Organizers are calling on everyone to join in actions on September 20 to demand the plan include a single-tier immigration system, where everyone has the same rights. All migrants, refugees and undocumented people in the country must be regularized and given full immigration status now without exception. All migrants arriving in the future must do so with full and permanent immigration status.

September 20 National Day of Action: Demand permanent status for all

Status for All! action in Montreal, August 23, 2020

By Steve Rutchinski

There are more than 1.6 million people in Canada denied their fundamental human rights because the government of Canada refuses to do its duty and guarantee the rights of each and every human being. On September 20, just days before federal Parliament resumes, migrant rights organizations are holding yet another Canada-wide day of action to demand Canada modernize itself, come into the 21st century, recognize that all human beings have rights and provide Status for All! Everyone should go all out to support these actions. It’s a matter of principle, of social solidarity! To learn more about the actions, click here.

Cross country August 23 Day of Action demands status for all

This Day. 100th Anniversary of the Winnipeg General Strike

Canadian workers’ proud history of organized resistance and defence of rights

Rally June 4, 1919, outside the building which housed the citizen’s committee.

This year marks the 100th Anniversary of the Winnipeg General Strike. On May First 1919, discouraged by post-war inflation and unemployment, Winnipeg’s metal and building workers went on strike, demanding higher wages. Winnipeg’s building trade workers walked out to gain better wages and hours. They were joined by iron workers who were fighting for company recognition of their union, the Metal Trades Council. On May 15, with the overwhelming support of its 12,000 members, the Winnipeg Labour Council called a general strike. Thirty thousand union and non-union people walked off the job. Among the first out were the city’s telephone workers. Winnipeg had no phone service for a week. 

Reality Check 2: Operation ‘Brave New Canadian’ – The care givers

Demand status upon arrival for migrant care workers and their families!

Press conference in Toronto, November 18, 2018.

(TMLW) – Migrant care workers held meetings and press briefings in Toronto, Edmonton, Vancouver, Ottawa and Montreal on November 18 to release a report demanding that the government uphold their human rights. The report, “Care Worker Voices for Landed Status and Fairness,” was prepared by 14 organizations representing migrant care workers and serves as the backbone of the campaign “Landed Status Now: Care Workers Organize!”[1]

Reality Check 1: Operation ‘Brave New Canadian’ – The Haitians

This demonstration outside the Riding Office of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Montreal did not make the front page of the monopoly media, let alone the inside pages. The demonstration demanded an end to the deportation of non-status persons of Haitian origin – The Action Committee on Non-Status Persons

The Canadian government is cynically using an orchestrated media operation centring around Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and a Saudi teenager flown to Canada in a special plane from Thailand on January 12 to receive asylum to camouflage how it is trampling on the rights and dignity of immigrants, refugees and migrant workers.

Every day dozens of people are being deported from Canada to Haiti. Non-status persons of Haitian origin awaiting deportation are experiencing insufferable harassment on the part of the Canadian government. One day the government is deporting them, the next day it is not. One day their application for asylum is refused, their deportation date is set, and the next it is annulled and they are told that they will be called back in a couple of weeks. This is an inhumane and untenable situation.

Quebec: Do not permit the ruling parties and media to use immigration to dominate this election!

The Marxist-Leninist Party of Quebec issued a very sharp commentary on September 30, 2018 on the eve of the election. Full text follows:

The ruling class has managed to make immigration the issue in this election. It is even saying that the Coalition Avenir Québec is posed to win the election on the basis of this platform.

Immigration detainees start hunger strike in Ontario

Defend the Rights of All

Over 50 immigration detainees began to refuse food the morning of Monday July 11 at the maximum security Central East Correctional Centre in Lindsay, Ontario and the Toronto East Detention Centre in Scarborough calling for an end to indefinite detentions in maximum security prisons and protesting prison conditions that include lock-downs and solitary confinement. The immigration detainees are asking for a meeting with Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale to discuss their concerns.

The program to resettle Syrian refugees in Canada (2): Defend the rights of all

As of February 28 more than 25,000 Syrian refugees have come to Canada. A little over half came as government-assisted refugees with the rest having private or semi-private sponsorship. A recent issue of TML Weekly features a call from the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) for working people to be vigilant and make sure their rights are defended in the context of defending the rights of all. We are posting the full text below.

Harper government hopes to profit from human misery

Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) – “a program that has been condemned by Canadians because it is a form of modern slavery which binds mostly Filipino women to contracts that require them to work two out of three years with one employer or risk losing their status.”

TML Daily (Nov. 19) – ON NOVEMBER 14, the Canadian Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Chris Alexander announced that in the wake of the hardship in the Philippines caused by Typhoon Haiyan, Canada was going to fast-track applications for Filipinos who wish to immigrate to Canada, apply for tourist visas, or come to the country under the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program on humanitarian grounds. As well, he announced that Filipinos now in Canada on a temporary basis can apply to extend their stay and their cases will be “assessed in a compassionate and flexible manner.”