Hundreds of people took to the streets on July 26th 2002 in Montreal to resist the pending deportation of over 1000 Algerians living in Montreal. On April 5th Citizenship & Immigration Canada lifted a five-year-old moratorium on Algeria. This change in Canada’s immigration policy puts hundreds of Algerians under the gun and at the imminent risk of being deported to Algeria. The demonstration highlighted this pending crisis and put forth two clear demands: reinstatement of the moratorium on deportations from Canada to Algeria and regularisation of all non-status people in Canada whatever their country of origin.
The demonstration organized by le Comité d'action des sans-statut and supported by over 20 other Montreal based groups & organizations was a step forward in a larger campaign to build resistance to the inhuman and racist deportations facing non-status Algerians living in Montreal. It was clear on the streets, that there is a strong spirit to fight this situation and it is growing each day. The streets were filled with passion in chants like “No Border, No Nation, Stop the Deportations” and larger banners reading “Tear Down the Borders”.
The growing resistance to the deportation of Algerians living in Montreal also
marks a growing movement to resist the racist & unjust treatment of immigration
& refugee communities. A growing resistance to the lockdown of borders throughout
the world marked recently here in Canada by the signing at the G8 Summit of
the .Safe Third Country Agreement. Many organizers and participants at the demonstration
spoke openly about the connections between the racist scapegoating of immigrant
& refugee communities, the lockdown of borders and capitalism . Highlighting
that borders are open internationally for the flow of trade but not for the
flow & movement of people.
The demonstration made clear that the growing fight against these deportations
in Montreal are very much connected to struggles around the world such as those
people detained in Australia at the Woomera Detention Center, such as the struggle
against borders occurring in Strasbourg France at the No Border Camp and the
struggles fought every day on the front lines in peoples lives .
For more information contact:
le Comité d'action des sans-statut
(514) 996-2597