FORUM: Supporting Non-Status Women Fleeing Violence
Thursday October 2, 2008
9:30am Registration
10:00am Forum
Location: Ryerson University
Student Centre
55 Gould St
Rm SCC115
** March and Rally to follow at 12:00pm **
* Learn about how recent changes to immigration law impact diverse women, including women without status
* Hear about attacks on safe spaces and community responses to support non-status women fleeing violence
* Q&A with immigration lawyer, front line workers and service providers
To register please contact Sonia at sonia@workersactioncentre.org or
(416) 531-0778, ext. 221 by September 25, 2008
************************************************************************
MARCH and RALLY at the Immigration Refugee Board
Thursday October 2, 2008
Meet 12:00pm at the corner of Yonge St. and Gould St.
Let Them Stay!
* Support domestic violence survivor Isabel Garcia and her children to stay in Canada
* Call for protection of women fleeing violence through the refugee determination process
Isabel Garcia, single mother and survivor of domestic violence, and herchildren are just one of many families whose lives have been put at risk as a result of negative decisions at the Immigration and Refugee Board.
Isabel came to Canada with her children 3 years ago seeking protection from her violent ex-husband in Mexico. Ignoring overwhelming evidence pointing to a lack of state protection for women surviving domestic violence in Mexico, the Immigration and Refugee Board heartlessly denied Isabel's claim for asylum.
By issuing an abrupt and last minute deportation notice, Immigration Enforcement ensured that Isabel and her lawyer did not have time for a fair review at the Federal Court for a stay on her removal. Isabel made the difficult decision to go into hiding rather than face further violence in Mexico.
Canada's failing Immigration and Refugee Protection Act is allowing huge numbers of women fleeing violence to fall through the cracks. The Federal Court of Canada has begun to question decisions of the Refugee Board and has recently overturned several decisions where women faced gender violence.
These women have been unable to access shelters, crisis centers, professional support, guidance or counseling because of Immigration Enforcement's targeting of these spaces.
Stand up against immigration decisions and policies that put women and children, like Isabel and her family, at risk of violence. Join us as we call on the government to:
* Let Them Stay! - Allow this family to stay in Canada while their Humanitarian Application is considered, and to grant their Humanitarian Application
* Ensure protection for women fleeing violence through the refugee determination process
** How can you help? **
1) Endorse the rally and help us mobilize. Organize a delegation from your church, union, or community center to come out to the forum and rally. Call us for help in spreading the word and for copies of flyers and posters or to make a financial or in-kind donation.
2) Write a support letter for Isabel Garcia and mail it to the Workers Action Centre. For a sample, see the letter below.
3) Invite campaign representatives to do a workshop or presentation at your organization, agency or community centre.
4) Make a financial or in-kind donation to help with this campaign.
Cheques can be made payable to Workers Action Centre.
For more information, or to send an endorsement or a letter of support, contact:
Workers' Action Centre - Sonia Singh: (416) 531-0778, ext. 221,
sonia@workersactioncentre.org
Interim Place - Cindy Cowan: cindy@interimplace.com
No One is Illegal: nooneisillegal@riseup.net
Donations and support letters can be sent to:
Workers' Action Centre
720 Spadina Avenue, Suite 223
Toronto ON M5S 2T9
***ENDORSED BY***
Centre for Feminist Research
Interim Place
Mennonite New Life Centre
METRAC
Mujer
Nellie's
No One Is Illegal - Toronto
North York Women's Shelter
Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses
OPSEU
Parkdale Community Legal Services
Step It Up Campaign
The Stop Community Food Centre
Toronto Rape Crisis Centre
Toronto Women's Bookstore
Workers Action Centre
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Thursday, September 18, 2008
CN: Drop your Racist Lawsuit!
*Support Shawn Brant and the Mohawks of Tyendinaga*
Tyendinaga is a Mohawk community located on the shore of the Bay of Quinte between Toronto and Montreal, in eastern Ontario. The Mohawk Nation is one of the five original nations of the Iroquois Confederacy.
As part of long-standing struggles for land and self-determination – including unresolved land claims, poverty, suicides and polluted water -- members of the Tyendinaga Mohawk community have organized to defend their territory. In particular, several actions, including blockades, have taken place to expedite the slow negotiation process over the Culbertson Tract, a piece of land the government has long acknowledged was taken illegally from the Mohawks. A quarry on the land was reclaimed in March 2007, and Mohawks have maintained a fulltime presence on-site ever since.
Because of his role as an outspoken spokesperson for the community, Shawn Brant has been repeatedly targeted for arrest and incarceration. Shawn's trial for his role in blockades of highways and railways running through the Tyendinaga territory will begin in January 2009; the Crown prosecutor is asking for 12 year prison sentence.
The attack on Shawn Brant is no less than an attack on all Indigenous peoples who stand up to defend their land and community. Other members of the Tyendinaga community have also been charged with serious offences, and forbidden from participating in protests. Instead of acknowledging the just claims of the Tyendinaga Mohawks, the government and police are criminalizing the community.
We must not let the state succeed with their attacks on Shawn Brant and the Mohawks of Tyendinaga. As non-native allies, living in settler communities on or near Mohawk lands, we need to stand up in support of Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination. Read more below about "How you can help?"
--- CN: Drop your racist lawsuit! ---
While various Mohawk activists are facing criminal charges, some are also facing civil lawsuits by CN Rail, a multi-billion dollar company with installations and tracks from ocean-to-ocean. CN's corporate headquarters are in Montreal (935 de La Gauchetière Street West, right beside the main Central Train Station). CN's rails through the territory of Tyendinaga were blocked in April 2006, and again in June 2007.
In a legal maneuver that can only be described as colonial, CN is currently suing three activists from the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory – Shawn Brant, Jason Maracle and Tara Green -- for over $100 million. CN's lawsuit is that much more offensive when you consider that CN tracks cross native territories all over "Canada." Their lawsuit is about intimidating and marginalizing effective indigenous organizers, who are active in the legitimate defense of their land and livelihood.
While CN uses the courts to attack native activists, the company's CEO -- E. Hunter Harrison -- is a member of the North American Competitiveness Council, a key promoter of the recently formed "Security and Prosperity Partnership" (SPP) between Canada, the United States and Mexico. The SPP continues the imposition of the pro-corporate North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), combined with paranoid "Homeland Security" policies.
When travelers consider the "inconvenience" of delayed trains, or blocked highways and bridges, contrast that temporary inconvenience with the permanent and deeply entrenched theft of land from native communities, and the adverse social conditions that hundreds of years of genocide have produced.
As part of the campaign of support for the Mohawks of Tyendinaga, Montreal-area organizers are also organizing a campaign to target CN Rail for their colonial and racist role in attacking the Mohawks of Tyendinaga. They are demanding that CN drop their racist lawsuit.
---- How you can help? ----
* The Montreal Tyendinaga Support Committee is actively raising money for the Tyendinaga Legal Defence Fund, which divides funds raised between the legal costs of Shawn's trial, and maintaining the quarry reclamation site. Get in touch to contribute, or if you're organizing your own fundraising events. Check out their website for more info about the $5 x 1000 Montreal Fundraising Campaign.
* The Montreal Tyendinaga Support Committee is also continuing their campaign against CN Rail, whose corporate headquarters are in Montreal. If you can help with popular education and action efforts in the coming months, please get in touch. More info about the CN campaign is also on their website below.
* More generally, get in touch so that you can receive more info about upcoming events and actions, as well as updates.
INFO: indigenoussolidaritymontreal@gmail.com - 514-848-7583 -
http://www.amp-montreal.net
Tyendinaga is a Mohawk community located on the shore of the Bay of Quinte between Toronto and Montreal, in eastern Ontario. The Mohawk Nation is one of the five original nations of the Iroquois Confederacy.
As part of long-standing struggles for land and self-determination – including unresolved land claims, poverty, suicides and polluted water -- members of the Tyendinaga Mohawk community have organized to defend their territory. In particular, several actions, including blockades, have taken place to expedite the slow negotiation process over the Culbertson Tract, a piece of land the government has long acknowledged was taken illegally from the Mohawks. A quarry on the land was reclaimed in March 2007, and Mohawks have maintained a fulltime presence on-site ever since.
Because of his role as an outspoken spokesperson for the community, Shawn Brant has been repeatedly targeted for arrest and incarceration. Shawn's trial for his role in blockades of highways and railways running through the Tyendinaga territory will begin in January 2009; the Crown prosecutor is asking for 12 year prison sentence.
The attack on Shawn Brant is no less than an attack on all Indigenous peoples who stand up to defend their land and community. Other members of the Tyendinaga community have also been charged with serious offences, and forbidden from participating in protests. Instead of acknowledging the just claims of the Tyendinaga Mohawks, the government and police are criminalizing the community.
We must not let the state succeed with their attacks on Shawn Brant and the Mohawks of Tyendinaga. As non-native allies, living in settler communities on or near Mohawk lands, we need to stand up in support of Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination. Read more below about "How you can help?"
--- CN: Drop your racist lawsuit! ---
While various Mohawk activists are facing criminal charges, some are also facing civil lawsuits by CN Rail, a multi-billion dollar company with installations and tracks from ocean-to-ocean. CN's corporate headquarters are in Montreal (935 de La Gauchetière Street West, right beside the main Central Train Station). CN's rails through the territory of Tyendinaga were blocked in April 2006, and again in June 2007.
In a legal maneuver that can only be described as colonial, CN is currently suing three activists from the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory – Shawn Brant, Jason Maracle and Tara Green -- for over $100 million. CN's lawsuit is that much more offensive when you consider that CN tracks cross native territories all over "Canada." Their lawsuit is about intimidating and marginalizing effective indigenous organizers, who are active in the legitimate defense of their land and livelihood.
While CN uses the courts to attack native activists, the company's CEO -- E. Hunter Harrison -- is a member of the North American Competitiveness Council, a key promoter of the recently formed "Security and Prosperity Partnership" (SPP) between Canada, the United States and Mexico. The SPP continues the imposition of the pro-corporate North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), combined with paranoid "Homeland Security" policies.
When travelers consider the "inconvenience" of delayed trains, or blocked highways and bridges, contrast that temporary inconvenience with the permanent and deeply entrenched theft of land from native communities, and the adverse social conditions that hundreds of years of genocide have produced.
As part of the campaign of support for the Mohawks of Tyendinaga, Montreal-area organizers are also organizing a campaign to target CN Rail for their colonial and racist role in attacking the Mohawks of Tyendinaga. They are demanding that CN drop their racist lawsuit.
---- How you can help? ----
* The Montreal Tyendinaga Support Committee is actively raising money for the Tyendinaga Legal Defence Fund, which divides funds raised between the legal costs of Shawn's trial, and maintaining the quarry reclamation site. Get in touch to contribute, or if you're organizing your own fundraising events. Check out their website for more info about the $5 x 1000 Montreal Fundraising Campaign.
* The Montreal Tyendinaga Support Committee is also continuing their campaign against CN Rail, whose corporate headquarters are in Montreal. If you can help with popular education and action efforts in the coming months, please get in touch. More info about the CN campaign is also on their website below.
* More generally, get in touch so that you can receive more info about upcoming events and actions, as well as updates.
INFO: indigenoussolidaritymontreal@gmail.com - 514-848-7583 -
http://www.amp-montreal.net
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Tenant's Rights Workshop
Wednesday, September 10
1:00 - 2:00
LEC Pit, Trent University
Not sure what do you do when your landlord invades your privacy, fails to do repairs, asks for a deposit???
This workshop will help you determine if your living arrangement falls under the Residential Tenancies Act, and will provide you with the information and tools that you need to start asserting your rights!
For more information contact PCAP at
(705)749-9694
pcap@riseup.net
or stop by our office at
#17 - 393 Water Street
Peterborough, Ontario, K9H 3L7
Fight to Win!
1:00 - 2:00
LEC Pit, Trent University
Not sure what do you do when your landlord invades your privacy, fails to do repairs, asks for a deposit???
This workshop will help you determine if your living arrangement falls under the Residential Tenancies Act, and will provide you with the information and tools that you need to start asserting your rights!
For more information contact PCAP at
(705)749-9694
pcap@riseup.net
or stop by our office at
#17 - 393 Water Street
Peterborough, Ontario, K9H 3L7
Fight to Win!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
