OPEN LETTER: Montreal supports Laibar Singh!
Justice for Laibar Singh! Status for All!
Part of National Days of Action in Support of Laibar Singh
Solidarity Delegation
TUESDAY, January 29, NOON
1010 St-Antoine West; métro Bonaventure
Citizenship and Immigration Canada
We demand that Laibar Singh’s sanctuary be respected.
We demand that Laibar Singh be granted permanent residency.
We demand an end to deportations and detentions, and status for all!
OPEN LETTER
Montreal & Quebec Supports Laibar Singh: Status for All!
Laibar Singh is a 48-year old paralyzed refugee claimant who is facing deportation to India. [Background to Laibar's case is available via the "Communities for Laibar Singh" website: http://supportlaibar.blogspot.com ]
This past January 9, 2008 at dawn, the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) attempted another removal order on Laibar Singh. But again, hundreds of supporters gathered at the Sikh Temple in Surrey, British Columbia to protest his deportation. The temple reiterated their offer of sanctuary, and Laibar's supporters demanded that the long-standing tradition of sanctuary be respected. In the face of this ongoing support, the CBSA deferred the removal.
Earlier, on December 10, 2007, more than one thousand protesters at the Vancouver Airport helped to stop another planned deportation.
The community mobilizing in support of Laibar Singh is inspiring.
It is especially inspiring because on a daily basis, across Canada, the deportation agents of the CBSA enter homes, workplaces, shopping malls, subway stations and even schools to detain migrants. Every year, more than 10,000 persons – friends and family, members of our communities -- are removed from Canada by the CBSA.
We are writing, as groups and organizations involved in migrant justice work in the Montreal and Quebec City-area, to publicly express our support and solidarity for Laibar Singh, and the communities that have mobilized with him. We stand by their actions, and the desire to ensure that Laibar's wishes – his self-determination – is respected.
We also write to denounce the CBSA, and their continued inhumane attempts to remove Laibar, as well as other migrants.
Through our own local organizing – against deportations, detentions and security certificates; in defense of the rights of migrants as workers and human beings; against racism in all its forms – we re-affirm our commitment to the shared struggle for justice and dignity. We continue to demand, "Status for All!"
"No borders, no nations, stop the deportations!"
Signed:
- Solidarity Across Borders
- No One Is Illegal-Montreal
- No One Is Illegal-Quebec City
- Immigrant Workers Center (IWC)
- Migrant Workers Support Centre of Quebec
- La Otra Campaña-Montreal
- PINAY (Filipino Women's Organization in Quebec)
- Coalition d'aide aux travailleurs et travailleuses agricoles (CATTA)
- Droits Travailleuses et Travailleurs (Im)migrants
- Tadamon! Montreal
- La Pointe Libertaire
- 2110 Centre for Gender Advocacy
- McGill Refugee Research Project
- Les Apatrides Anonymes
- Head and Hands NDG
- Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG)-Concordia
- Chalo Desi Montreal
- South Asian Women's Community Center (SAWCC)
and others.
Laibar Singh has also received public support from the following Sikh temples in the Montreal-area:
- Gurdwara Nanak Darbar Community Center, Parc Extension
- Gurdwara Guru Nanak Darbar, Lasalle
- Gurdwara Sahib Quebec, Verdun
and others.
--> To add the name of your group or organization to this open letter, please contact solidaritesansfrontieres@gmail.com
For background info:- Communities in Support of Laibar Singh
- No One Is Illegal-Vancouver
- News Compilation
Info: solidaritesansfrontieres@gmail.com
514-848-7583 (English/French)
514-909-9991 (Punjabi)
www.solidarityacrossborders.org
http://nooneisillegal-montreal.blogspot.com
