*** End of season update, a look back at the summer, and a look ahead to the fall (of capitalism) ***
No One Is Illegal - Ottawa (NOII-Ottawa) is an anti-capitalist, anti-colonial migrant justice grassroots organization based in Ottawa. We are migrants, indigenous people and allies. We build campaigns of opposition to racist and xenophobic governments and policies. We believe in mass mobilization, direct action, public education and grassroots agitation. We are part of a broad network of NOIIs existing in cities across Canada and allies around the world.
Summer of Rage
This summer, NOII-Ottawa took an active role locally in mobilizing against the G20 summit in Toronto. We opposed the G20 because their anti-people policies have negatively affected migrant communities, among many others. We are opposed to the brutal continuation of rabid capitalist and colonial policies. Along with our allies from disabled communities, the poor and working poor, the labour movement, queer people and anarchists, thousands of us took to the streets to directly confront and disrupt the G20 and business as usual. We made it loud and clear that we are in this struggle together, that we have got each other’s backs, and that we are angry and organized. A full week of inspiring actions took place, and through it all our networks came out of it stronger and more unified. Meeting each other face to face, and seeing the potential that we hold was a boost for NOII-Ottawa and the anti-capitalist movement inside occupied Turtle Island.
* For report backs on the G20 mobilization, check out:
http://nooneisillegal-
And http://nooneisillegal-
In August, NOII-Ottawa also joined up with NOIIs from across the country in days of action in support of the MV Sun Sea migrants. A boat carrying nearly 500 Tamil migrants arrived in British Columbia to a welcoming committee of xenophobic news articles, racist hysteria and jail. In response, the NOII network set to work to dispel some of the myths surrounding these Tamil refugees, and in many cities took to the streets to denounce racist ministers Jason Kenney and Vic Towes. In Ottawa, NOII called for a demo at Jason Kenney’s office. While his spokesperson was slandering us in the news, nearly a hundred of us mobilized in support of the Tamil migrants and in support of status for all.
* For more info:
http://noii-ottawa.blogspot.
NOII-Ottawa also organized around Capital Pride, Ottawa’s annual pride week celebrations and LGBT pride march. We hosted a panel called ‘‘Queers in Radical Struggles’’, where speakers addressed the criminalization of HIV, the role of queers in the struggle against Israeli Apartheid and the parallels between the migrant justice movement and the queer movement. During Pride week, NOII-Ottawa also had a contingent in the pride parade where many of our members marched alongside the anti-Israeli Apartheid contingent organized by Queer Faction, a local radical queer group. Our contingent handed out flyers addressing Jason Kenney’s xenophobia and homophobia.
Onwards!
Because of the flurry of activity this summer, NOII-Ottawa is currently in a very exciting phase. The links with individuals and organizations that we have made this summer are very important to us and will surely play a role in our upcoming fall plans.
NOII-Ottawa is attending meetings to support the Indigenous Sovereignty Week events, organized by a loose coalition of unions and activist groups. The Indigenous People’s Solidarity Movement, which is also involved with the planning of the week are long-time allies of ours. We look forward to supporting their work and the demands of ISW.
In late September we will be co-hosting a panel on the role of casework in radical organizations and movements. We are very excited to share a stage with the amazing folks at the Immigrants Workers Center, Stella and ASTTeQ (Trans Health Action of Quebec).
Also in late September, NOII-Ottawa will have a contingent and a speaker at the annual ‘Take Back the Night’ march, where we will address the role of deportations and xenophobia in perpetuating violence against women.
On Saturday November 20th we are gearing up for a big Status For All march in Ottawa. It has been years since NOII marched on Ottawa, and we feel it is important to have pressure building in Ottawa, the capital of this racist state. The march will be an important part of our ‘Solidarity City’ campaign. With that campaign we are working towards establishing a comprehensive city-wide network of organizations and service providers that will commit themselves publicly to ensuring safe access to basic services and community spaces for non-status people, so that everyone in our city, regardless of immigration status, can live here with dignity and without fear of exclusion or deportation. The November 20th march will be a way to build excitement about the campaign, as well as a time where we can declare our intentions and mobilize our communities.
It’s going to be a hectic season for NOII-Ottawa, so we appreciate all help we can get. To join NOII, to learn about upcoming meetings and events, or to state your support, please get in touch with us at:
e-mail: noiiottawa@gmail.com
web: http://noii-ottawa.blogspot.
http://www.nooneisillegal.org/
NO ONE IS ILLEGAL! STATUS FOR ALL!
No One is Illegal (NOII) Ottawa is a coalition of migrants and allies that advocates and fights for the rights, dignity, and respect of immigrants and refugees, as well as those living without status in Canada. We also stand in solidarity with the struggles of indigenous peoples for land, self-determination and sovereignty. We challenge the racist ideology inherent to the "War on Terror" that is intrinsically linked to repressive immigration controls. This past week four men were arrested, three in Ottawa, as part of a 2-year investigation entitled “Project Samosa” - an absurd and culturally incompetent name that reveals the racist underpinnings of this so-called security operation.
We believe that the men must be presumed to be innocent, both in the court process and in public consciousness. Media sensationalism, government statements, and public commentaries have revealed that the men are being considered and treated as guilty terrorists. The mainstream corporate media has played a crucial role in stirring public frenzy by uncritically parroting government rhetoric such as “homegrown terrorists” and “Jihad generation” and that the suspects were “inspired by Al Qaeda”, without providing any evidence to substantiate such claims. Such stigmatizing statements will have a permanent damaging effect on the men and their families and their “guilt” will surely continue even if the charges are dropped or the men are acquitted. Much like the stigmatization and media's guilty verdict of the Tamil migrants aboard the MV Sun Sea, or the case of Professor Hassan Diab, or Maher Arar, we believe it is important, in the face of racist stereotypes and xenophobia, to actively challenge such rhetoric.
We remember the disastrous consequences of racism in Canadian society. We remember the SS St-Louis, where a boat carrying Jewish passengers fleeing Nazi persecution was turned away from Canada, and sent to their deaths in concentration camps. We remember Grise, a pregnant 24-year-old Mexican refugee, who was deported from Canada to her death in Mexico, after attempting to gain status as a refugee fleeing death threats. We remember “Operation Thread” in 2003, when over twenty South Asian - predominantly Pakistani - Muslim men were arrested in Toronto for allegedly being an Al-Qaeda sleeper cell. None of the allegations were proven to be true and not one of the men was ever formally charged, let alone convicted. Yet most were deported and their lives destroyed by the unsubstantiated allegations linking them to terrorism. Four years ago, eighteen men and youth were arrested in the Toronto 18 terror plot. Seven subsequently had all charges dropped, while others were convicted or had to plead guilty under excruciating circumstances. These are reasons enough to remain vigilant. As Alex Neve, the secretary general of Amnesty International has said, “the main lesson here is that there can easily be a great deal of hysteria. But there have been previous cases that have collapsed or proved not to be as advertised.”
Despite the fact that the men arrested are all residents and citizens of Canada, the questioning of their “Canadian-ness” reveals a shallow multiculturalism and clear racist tendencies. Stories about their Otherness abound: “the suspect with a full, long beard”; “there was nothing that seemed too out of the ordinary except neighbors noted the women wore a niqab or burqa”; or “she said the couple talked openly about their Muslim beliefs”. Profiling is a hateful double standard by which individual members of communities are judged and held responsible for acts or behaviors based on their culture, race, ethnicity, and/or religion.
In the past few weeks an ugly side of Canadian society has been rearing its head. Across the country known racist neo-nazi organizer Paul Fromm has been hosting xenophobic anti-Tamil protests. Though fairly unsuccessful attendance-wise, these rallies are a frightening reminder of what we are facing if we give up the fight against racism. We must commit ourselves to continuing to defend our communities against demonization. We must continue to struggle for the elimination of all forms of oppressive violence waged against the peoples of the world, particularly the never-ending 'War on Terrorism" which is bringing the greatest degree of so much terror and fear into the lives of the world’s majority.
We place ourselves within the broader movement for global justice struggling against capitalism, homophobia, imperialism, occupation, patriarchy, poverty, racism and other forms of domination because we recognize that these are interconnected systems.Against racism, xenophobia, scapegoating and all borders, we say NO ONE IS ILLEGAL
Monday August 23rd
Ottawa, Ontario
Unceded Algonquin Territory
On Monday August 23rd migrants, Indigenous people and allies rallied outside the Citizenship and Immigration Canada offices in support of the Tamil migrants who have landed in BC aboard the MV Sun Sea.
“From one community of resistance to another, we welcome you” said Pierre Beaulieu-Blais, an Anishnabe member of NOII-Ottawa to the enthusiastic crowd, “as people who have also lost our land and been displaced because of colonialism and racism, we say Open All The Borders! Status For All!”
Monika Thakker, spokesperson for NOII-Ottawa also addressed the crowd, explaining that "Refugees will do whatever they need to do to seek safety for themselves and for their families from violent colonial and military occupations, wars, poverty, and environmental destruction. Borders and immigration controls do not provide security; they make people even more vulnerable to violence." “To those who say that immigrants are a burden, we ask you: Who cleans up after you? Who picks your fruit and vegetables? Who serves you food? Who drives you around? Who builds your houses, your schools, your hospitals? Time and time again, immigrants are scapegoated for the problems of capitalism.”
At its peak, nearly one hundred people gathered to speak up against the racist, anti-immigrant rhetoric that Canadian public officials, such as Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, have spread. The crowd cheered for welcoming immigrants and refugees as people who are deserving of respect, dignity, and freedom of movement.
As Jason Kenney, minister of Citizenship and Immigration, hid in his office under lock down and his spokesperson was lashing out at NOII, the crowd chanted “Jason Kenney Go Away – Tamil Migrants Here to Stay” and “No Borders, No Prisons – Stop the Deportations”. Families, students, Union representatives and other community members distributed hundreds of flyers to onlookers and people walking by, dispelling some of the myths about the Tamil migrants.
No One is Illegal Ottawa is a coalition of migrants and allies that advocates and fights for the rights, dignity, and respect of immigrants and refugees, as well as those living without status in Canada. We are against capitalism and we believe in abolishing borders. We call for Status for All. We also stand in solidarity with the struggles of indigenous peoples for land, self-determination and sovereignty.
Contact us: noiiottawa@gmail.com
more info about anti migrant hysteria: http://noii-van.resist.ca/?p=2173