"I plead guilty, I'm a racist." -- Jason Kenney
Jason Kenney confronted and disrupted in Montreal
October 23, 2009 -- Migrant justice activists and organizers, with their McGill allies, confronted and disrupted Jason Kenney -- Canada’s Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism -- before and during a closed function with Conservative McGill.
At least 50 protesters, in an action called by No One Is Illegal-Montreal, were able to surround Kenney in the Arts Building as he tried to enter the private event. For about one-minute, Kenney was asked about the report in today’s Toronto Star that a Mexican woman, who twice tried to apply for refugee status to Canada, was found murdered in Mexico (article is linked below). Kenney brushed off the question and didn’t answer.
Kenney was also asked explicitly about his party’s blocking of a refugee appeals division, and again he didn’t answer.
When Kenney was told by a member of No One Is Illegal that his policies scapegoat migrants and pander to racists, Kenney replied (with a hint of sarcasm): “I plead guilty, I’m a racist.” At that point, Kenney’s handlers and security pushed through protesters to get Kenney inside the venue.
For the next hour and more, protesters chanted and made noise to disrupt the event from outside. The protest was partially a teach-in as demonstrators gave speeches about Kenney’s track-record, highlighting in particular:
- the murder in Mexico of Grise, a woman who twice tried to claim refugee status in Canada but was refused
- the Conservatives continued refusal to implement a refugee appeals division;
- the recent treatment of Sri Lankan migrants who are currently detained in British Columbia;
- Kenney’s introduction of visas for Mexicans and Czechs while falsely misrepresenting their refugee claims as bogus;
- Kenney’s role in US-style mass raids on migrant workers in Ontario this past April;
- Kenney’s unapologetic defense of Israeli war crimes in Gaza and Lebanon;
- Kenney’s attack on free speech by preventing the entry of George Galloway into Canada;
- Kenney’s involvement in cutting the funding of the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF);
- Kenney’s proposed changes to the status of migrant workers, which makes their situation more precarious;
- the trend under Kenney and the Conservatives to push migrants into temporary worker categories;
- Kenney's defense of Conservative policies justifying rendition to torture and security certificates;
- Kenney’s record of comments that pander to racists, by inaccurately portraying migrants as abusive of the immigration and refugee system.
- and more (!).
Members of Solidarity Across Borders, active in support work with local migrants facing removal, also spoke to the day-to-day reality of deportation and detention in Montreal, citing examples of local individuals and families fighting for status, in defiance of removal orders.
At one point, two members of Conservative McGill – Gregory Harris and Derek Beigleman -- began chanting “We love Kenney, we love Kenney.” Protesters stayed silent for at least a minute, and then asked the Conservatives about their view on the murder of Grise, as well as Conservative immigration and refugee policies that allowed the tragedy to happen. The two Conservatives laughed throughout the narration of Grise’s deportation and eventual death.
During the picket, protesters also spoke in solidarity with No One Is Illegal Vancouver’s picket today demanding the release of Sri Lankan migrants who are currently detained after arriving in Canada last Sunday, as well as this evening’s migrant justice assembly by No One Is Illegal-Toronto.
No borders, no nations, stop the deportations!
-- No One Is Illegal-Montreal
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The Toronto Star article about the murder of Grise is linked HERE.
A quick selection of photos of the picket (not including, unfortunately, the surrounding of Kenney by protesters before he entered the venue) is available HERE.
7 comments:
Kenney's behaviour through out his tenure as "monster", oops, I mean minster of immigration have been reprehensible.
Silly
I'm no Tory, far from it.
To call Kenney a racsist is just plain silly.
Left wing, vegan agitators wanting to make some noise, that's all.
I hate the Harper Conservatives and want them out but foolish antics like the one at McGill serve no purpose other than to embolden Conservative Party workers and turn-off Canadians that are swing voters.
Sometimes I think that the fringe lefties actually help the Tories stay in power.
We of course live in a post-racist society, where everyone is treated equal regardless of their skin colour, ethnic and cultural history, and money in their pocket. So calling anyone a racist is just ludicrous. I mean clearly the Canadian government is just offering opportunities to Mexicans who choose to come to Canada, they choose to wave any and all rights - and that itself is the most important right ever, we would not want to take it away from anyone by creating conditions where someone does not have to make that choice. So really we are helping Mexicans really exercise their rights by making them wave several rights by becoming migrant labourers. It is every worker's right to CHOOSE to be exploited, that's what we fought the war for!
Canada continues to be a racist country. We are willing to severely exploit labour of migrants because of who they are (or are not) based upon their ethnic and cultural identity. We ensure several indigenous communities continue to live in extreme-poverty and claim it is because they are 'lazy' and 'alcoholics'. Urban blacks face racial profiling and on average have incomes much lower than their white neighbours. And it is not because Blacks are new to Canada and just learning to fit in, as a foundational component of the Black community has been living in Canada longer than previously marginalized communities of Greeks, Italians, and eastern Europeans - since the 19th century. Muslims have been arrested and imprisoned without trial and without knowing the evidence against them.
Does this small snap shot of the most obvious cases of racism make Kenny a racist? No, but if your first claim is to think it is impossible to think anyone is a racist in Canada is just 'silly' then reality has to smack you in the face. Canada is a racist country, any government of this country that pretends it doesn't exist or that the way it treats people is somehow neutral is racist. They do not even have to do some of the disgusting things this Conservative government has done - mentioned in this article - to migrants, immigrants, and Canadian citizens.
Calling Kenney a racist is "silly"?
Has anyone read his speeches where he declares all anti-Zionists (which includes a wide array of Jewish opinion from left to ultra-orthodox), are by definition all anti-Semitic?
I don't think this is mirroring Kenney's loose and stupid ideological language games. That track record indicates a very clear bias. If you have a better explanation, then present it, please.
Call a spade a spade. Kenney is clearly a racist apologist at the very least. No surprise that he's high up in the ex-Reform party. They had to quiet down their white supremacist membership once upon a time, I recall. I'm sure they still are part of the party if not the caucus itself.
It doesn't matter that he's only picking on certain racial and cultural minorities. He's still using racist tactics to publicize his policies and enforce them. The 'white canada in peril' vote loves it.
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