Border enforcement is state terrorism

One purpose of this web log is to post news reports about migration, documenting both the incredible risks that individuals and families are prepared to endure in order to move across borders, and the tragedies that ensue.

These news reports, however seemingly repetitive, are posted as a constant reminder of the day-to-day reality of worldwide migration.

Below are links to two recent mainstream stories -- from the BBC and CNN -- about one of the most deadly contemporary migration routes: the sea journey from coastal West Africa to the Spanish Canary Islands. This year, as the BBC story below reports, at least 6000 migrants have died or disappeared making this harrowing journey. The death toll is not just an accident: with increased enforcement against migrants trying to cross from Morocco into Spain, African migrants are more willing to risk the even more dangerous sea journey from Mauritania or Senegal to Europe via the Canary Islands.

The 6000 person death and disappeared toll is more than twice the number of victims of the 9-11 World Trade Center bombing. The migrant deaths are the direct result of the state terrorism that European border enforcement policies represent, and deserves to be denounced as such.

-- JBS.
::::::::::

--> BBC (December 28, 2006): About 6,000 African migrants have died or gone missing on the sea journey to the Canary Islands in 2006, Spanish immigration officials say.

Full article at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6213495.stm


--> CNN (December 18, 2006): A fishing boat crowded with more than 100 African migrants capsized at least twice while sailing to Spain's Canary Islands, spilling passengers and leaving scores dead as survivors drifted for about 10 days without food or water, officials said Monday. The boat sank off Senegal's coast Saturday and a Red Cross official said at least 80 migrants died.

Full article at: http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa/12/18/senegal.migrants.ap/index.html

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Le cas de Mohamed Anas Bennis

Voici des liens qui présentent des informations pertinentes sur le cas de Mohamed Anas Bennis. // Below are some weblinks compiled by No One Is Illegal-Montreal concerning the case of Mohamed Anas Bennis. INFO: justicepouranas@gmail.com

Updates:

-> Opinion: Authorities must come clean, an open letter by Khadija Bennis, sister of Anas Bennis (Montreal Gazette)
-> Opinion: It's wrong to have police investigating police shootings, by Henry Aubin (Montreal Gazette)
-> Editorial: We deserve to know why police shot Bennis (Montreal Gazette)
-> News Article: Police frustrated by inability to speak up about probe (Montreal Gazette)

-> La famille de Mohamed Anas Bennis demande justice (Le Devoir)

* JUSTICE POUR ANAS! On veut la vérité!
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/justice-pour-anas-on-veut-la-vrit.html

* JUSTICE FOR ANAS! We want the truth!
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/justice-for-anas-we-want-truth.html

* HOUR: Bennis family demand justice (January 27, 2007)
http://www.hour.ca/news/news.aspx?iIDArticle=11263

* Le Devoir: Tué par la police en allant prier à la mosquée (20 janvier 2007)
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com/2007/01/le-devoir-tu-par-la-police-en-allant.html

* Globe and Mail: A Tale of Two Young Men (January 6, 2007)
CLICK HERE

* Aucune accusation contre les policiers assassins Bernier et Roy, toujours aucune réponse à toutes les questions:
http://www.atlasmedias.com/affaire_annas_bennis.htm

* No One Is Illegal Radio: Interview with Khadija Bennis (December 12, 2006):
http://www.radio4all.net/pub/archive2/07.01.07/jaggisingh@gmail.com/2840-1-20061212-Part2Khadija.mp3

* Rendre justice à feu Anas Bennis, tué par un policier en 2005 (4 décembre 2006):
http://www.lopinion.ma/spip.php?article14190

* Justice pour Anas (2 décembre 2006):
http://www.atlasmedias.com/Atlas/journal46page1.pdf
http://www.atlasmedias.com/Atlas/journal46page4.pdf
http://www.atlasmedias.com/Atlas/journal46page5.pdf

* Photo-reportage : Vigiles à la mémoire de Mohamed Anas Bennis (1er et 2 décembre 2006) (en anglais):
http://gallery.cmaq.net/bennisvigils

* Why did Mohamed-Anas Bennis die (November 30, 2006)?:
http://www.montrealmirror.com/2006/113006/news1.html

* Affaire Mohamed Anas Bennis, 11 mois plus tard (13 novembre 2006):
http://www.cmaq.net/fr/node/26019

* The Case of Mohamed Anas Bennis, Eleven Months Later: (November 13, 2006):
http://www.cmaq.net/en/node/26143?PHPSESSID=8fac57736293fa2aae7d39b4d135ed95

* Affaire Anas Bennis: Un an après (9 novembre 2006):
http://www.atlasmedias.com/Atlas/journal44page4.pdf

* Entretien avec Maitre Pierre Pâquet, avocat de la famille Bennis (9 novembre 2006):
http://www.atlasmedias.com/Atlas/journal44page5.pdf

* L'affaire Anas : Un Marocain tué par la police au Canada (23 janvier 2006):
http://www.lereporter.ma/article.php3?id_article=186

* Un rapport de En Profondeur de CKUT sur l'affaire Bennis (janvier 2006)
CLIQUEZ ICI

* Des milliers de musulmans marchent pour Bennis, Demande d'enquête sur le décès d'un Marocain au Canada (9 janvier 2006):
http://www.emarrakech.info/Des-milliers-de-musulmans-marchent-pour-Bennis_a6366.html

* Mort d'homme et faits troublants (30 décembre 2005):
http://www.atlasmedias.com/Atlas/journal30page4.pdf

* Mais que s'est-il réellement passé rue Kent ce matin-là? (30 décembre 2005):
http://www.atlasmedias.com/Atlas/journal30page5.pdf

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No One Is Illegal Radio (December 2006)

Free Trevor Miller! ::: political prisoner from Six Nations
Justice for Mohamed Anas Bennis! ::: Killed by the Montreal police

Listen to our December 2006 show online at: http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=20889

MONTREAL, December 12, 2006 -- Yesterday, TREVOR MILLER, 31, of Six Nations was again denied release at a bail review hearing. He has been in custody since August, for his participation in the Land Reclamation on the Grand River Territory in Ontario. Trevor Miller is an indigenous political prisoner who remains steadfast in his refusal to accept the authority of colonial Canadian courts, and demands to be released to his own people.

Meanwhile, December 1, 2006 marked the first anniversary of the police killing of MOHAMED ANAS BENNIS, 25, at the corner of Cote-des-Neiges and Kent in Montreal. Despite strong community mobilization, the Bennis family has not been provided any information about why Mohamed Anas was shot and killed outside a mosque, and many in the community speculate about a racially motivated police killing that is being covered-up.

On this month's edition of No One Is Illegal Radio, we hear directly from the voices of supporters fighting against injustice on behalf of their family members.

--> We speak with both TRUDY MILLER and ANGEL SMITH, mother and cousin of indigenous political prisoner Trevor Miller.

Trevor has been in preventive custody for more than four months, since August when he was arrested at a blockade at Grassy Narrows. Trevor is being charged in relation to incidents at the Six Nation Land Reclamation, when he along with others defended the site against a US border patrol/ATF vehicle that appeared on the site.

Trevor has been referred to as the "Forgotten Warrior" because his situation was not publicly known for several months, until a letter he wrote his mother was published in a local Six Nations newspaper.

In these interviews, Trudy and Angel speak about Trevor's situation, as well as providing an analysis of the broader issues concerning indigenous sovereignty, the Great Law and the two-row wampum, the Haldimand Tract treaty, as well as the continued resistance of the women and men of Six Nations.

--> We also speak with KHADIJA BENNIS, the twin sister of Mohamed Anas Bennis who was killed by Montreal police last December 2005.

Mohamed Anas Bennis left a neighbourhood mosque, just minutes from his home, after early morning prayers on December 1, 2005. He was shot by Montreal police who were assisting Surete du Quebec investigators carrying out a search warrant in a fraud case nearby, totally unrelated to Bennis. Still, inexplicably, Bennis is alleged to have tried to stab a cop and was shot twice and killed. Bennis' family is adamant that the allegations against Mohamed are ludicrous. In the words of one sister: "The idea of Mohamed Anas walking around with a kitchen knife as he left mosque on the morning on December 1, there is no way we're going to swallow a story like that. We'd do better to believe in Santa Claus!"

Now more than one-year after the killing, the death of Mohamed Anas Bennis remains shrouded in mystery. The police and outside prosecutor have provided no written report to corroborate any of the claims the police have made. The special prosecutor has absolved the police of any responsibility for the killing, saying they acted in self-defense. There is still no independent proof that the police version of events is true. Even video footage from a nearby building has not been handed over, and might have even been destroyed. The circumstances surrounding the killing of Mohamed Anas Bennis have been buried, and the family treated with arrogance and disrespect.

The mystery and secrecy surrounding this case reinforces the belief by many in the Montreal community that Mohamed Anas Bennis was killed by police in case of racial profiling.

Listen to our December 2006 show online at:
--> http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=20889


::: No One Is Illegal Radio December 2006 Interview Excerpts :::

"They're making an example out of [Trevor]. They're doing him an injustice.
... I want it out there: I'm very proud of my son." -- Trudy Miller (mother
of Trevor Miller, indigenous political prisoner).

"[O]ur people in this day and age are more educated, we understand your
system that much more. We're still being who we are as Onkwehonweh people.
And this time around that education is going to help enforce our
sovereignty. And ya, they have our young warrior, but [he's] what you would
call a political prisoner." -- Angel Smith (Mohawk activist and cousin of
Trevor Miller).

"We have the feeling that we're being lied to and something is being hidden
from us ... It's hard to believe that willingly the system will give us the
truth. We're being insulted and our intelligence is being insulted. There
was an injustice and we're looking for justice." -- Khadija Bennis (twin
sister of Mohamed Anas Bennis who was killed by Montreal police).


--> For more information about SIX NATIONS, please consult the resource site by Autonomy and Solidarity for background and more links: http://auto_sol.tao.ca/node/view/2012

--> For information about the MOHAMED ANAS BENNIS case, please refer to this
backgrounder by the Collective Opposed to Police Brutality in Montreal:
http://www.cmaq.net/en/node/26143?PHPSESSID=8fac57736293fa2aae7d39b4d135ed95

--> PHOTOS from the recent vigils for Mohamed Anas Bennis (December 1, 2006) are available at: http://gallery.cmaq.net/bennisvigils

--> LISTEN to our December 2006 show online at:
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=20889

--> To GET INVOLVED with Six Nations political prisoner support work, or in support of justice for the Bennis family in the Montreal-area, please contact No One Is Illegal-Montreal at 514-848-7583 or noii-montreal@resist.ca

-----
No One Is Illegal Radio is a monthly news and current affairs show on CKUT community radio in Montreal, produced and hosted by members of the No One Is Illegal collective.

No One Is Illegal-Montreal is part of a worldwide movement of resistance, fighting for justice and dignity, and the right to self-determination for migrants, refugees and indigenous people. Our campaign is in public confrontation with the Canadian state, denouncing and taking action to combat racial profiling, police brutality, detentions and deportations, exploitation and wage-slave conditions, as well as opposing the displacement and genocide of indigenous peoples on Turtle Island.

--> The next No One Is Illegal-Montreal Radio show will be on the air live on Tuesday, January 9, 2007 from 5-6pm. Listen online at www.ckut.ca, or in Montreal tune-in at 90.3fm. Contact us for links to our previous shows!

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BBC: Youths want no migration controls

Four out of five youngsters believe people should be able to live in any country they choose, a BBC global survey of 15 to 17-year-olds suggests.

Original article (December 4, 2006) at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/6198696.stm

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Personne n'est illégal -- Principes rassembleurs

La campagne Personne n’est illégal –Montréal fait partie d’un mouvement mondial de résistance et de lutte collective pour l’autodétermination des personnes migrantes et des peuples autochtones.

Nous confrontons activement le système colonial – bâti sur la dépossession et le génocide des peuples autochtones – et les lois racistes et anti-immigrant-es. Nous soutenons qu’il n’existe pas d’être humains illégaux, que seules les lois sont inhumaines et les États illégaux. Le principe même de déterminer que des communautés entières sont composées « d’étrangers illégaux », de « sans-statuts » ou de « statuts indiens » vise à solidifier le système d’apartheid ; nous nous opposons au droit de tout gouvernement d’accorder de tels statuts.

Personne n’est illégal fait valoir le lien clair existant entre la mondialisation capitaliste et le déplacement des peuples du Sud globalisé. Les femmes, de plus en plus, migrent et fuient la persécution, l’injustice économique, l’exploitation, la pauvreté, l’oppression et la violence patriarcale. Cette migration prend racine dans les mêmes forces colonialistes et néo-colonialistes qui ont créé et maintenu la traite d’esclaves transatlantique et le déplacement forcé des peuples autochtones de l’Île de la tortue et de partout dans le monde.

Nous luttons et mobilisons pour le droit des peuples à maintenir leurs moyens de subsistance, à résister aux déplacements et à migrer librement. Aucun gouvernement ne peut déterminer qui a le droit de rester et sous quelles conditions. Nous dénonçons la criminalisation des personnes racialisées et autochtones en vertu de la « Sécurité nationale ». Nous rejetons les approches réformistes visant « l’amélioration » d’un système colonial qui accepte le contrôle et l’administration coloniale, et qui est fondé sur de fausses distinctions entre les « bon-ne-s » et les « mauvaix-ses » migrant-e-s. Nous affirmons le droit au passage sécuritaire pour les personnes migrantes, et travaillons activement au développement de réseaux de solidarité et de soutien.

Personne n’est illégal – Montréal prend forme dans un contexte où les politiques de l’État canadien visent de plus en plus la consolidation de la « Forteresse Amérique du Nord ». Par le libre-échange, les frontières s’ouvrent au capital, tout en exploitant les personnes dont la libre circulation est restreinte. Nous rejetons la guerre raciste « contre le terrorisme » et ses manifestations domestiques par l’entremise des lois, des politiques et des ententes.

Personne n’est illégal agit dans le but d’éduquer la population et de faire connaître les injustices dans une perspective anti-capitaliste, anti-impérialiste, anti-patriarcale, anti-autoritaire et pro queer, tout en ayant une vision de frontières ouvertes et de justice sociale et économique. Nous luttons contre le profilage racial, les détentions, les déportations, la brutalité policière et étatique, l’esclavage salarial et toute forme d’indignité. Nous respectons une diversité de tactiques qui se renforcent les unes et les autres, y compris l’éducation populaire et l’action directe.

Nous luttons afin de faire partie du mouvement de résistance qui grandit à l’intérieur des murs de la Forteresse Amérique du Nord. Nous reconnaissons que les luttes pour l’autodétermination et la libre circulation des peuples contre l’exploitation coloniale sont menées par les communautés qui combattent depuis les lignes de front. La campagne Personne n’est illégal, à titre de participante et d’alliée, appuie concrètement ces luttes. Ce faisant, nous cherchons à contribuer au développement d’un mouvement global pour la justice et la dignité, tout en tissant des liens entre les communautés en résistance dans nos régions et partout dans le monde.

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No One Is Illegal-Montreal's Basis of Unity

The No One Is Illegal campaign of Montreal is part of a worldwide movement of resistance, struggling collectively for the self-determination of migrants and indigenous peoples.

We are in active confrontation with a colonial system built on the dispossession and genocide of indigenous peoples, as well as racist anti-immigrant laws. We maintain that there are no illegal human beings, only inhumane laws and illegal states. The very basis of labeling entire communities as "illegal aliens", "non-status" or "status Indian" aims to reinforce an apartheid system; we reject any government's right to grant such status.

No One Is Illegal asserts the clear link between capitalist globalization and the displacement of people from the global south, increasingly women, who are migrating from persecution, economic injustice, exploitation, poverty, oppression and patriarchal violence. This migration traces its roots to the same forces of colonialism and neo-colonialism that have created and perpetuated the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the forcible displacement of indigenous peoples on Turtle Island and throughout the world.

We struggle and organize for the right of peoples to maintain their livelihoods and resist displacement, as well as to migrate freely. No government can determine who is allowed to stay, and under what conditions. We denounce the criminalization of racialized and indigenous people under the rubric of "National Security", and reject reformist approaches to "improving" an immigration system that accepts colonial control and administration, and that rely on false distinctions between "good" and "bad" migrants. We affirm the right to safe passage for migrants, and work actively to build networks of solidarity and support.

No One Is Illegal in Montreal comes together in a context where the policies of the Canadian state increasingly aim to consolidate "Fortress North America" using free trade to open borders to capital, while exploiting the people whose free movement is restricted. We reject the racist "War on Terror" and its domestic manifestations in various laws, policies and agreements.

No One Is Illegal acts to expose and educate against injustice from an anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, anti-patriarchal, anti-authoritarian and a queer positive perspective, while asserting a vision for open borders and social and economic justice. We work to combat racial profiling, detentions, deportations, police and state brutality, wage slavery and all forms of indignity. We respect a diversity of mutually reinforcing tactics, including popular education and direct action.

We organize to be part of the resistance movement within the walls of Fortress North America. We recognize that struggles for self-determination, and for the free movement of people against colonial exploitation, are led by the communities who fight on the frontlines. The No One Is Illegal campaign lends tangible support to these struggles in our capacity as both participants and allies. In doing so, we seek to contribute to building a global movement for justice and dignity, while building links between communities of resistance locally and worldwide.

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