Migrants mark Anti-Racism Day in Vancouver

Migrants mark Anti-Racism Day in Vancouver

March 19, 2023

VANCOUVER–Over a hundred migrants, migrants’ rights advocates, migrants’ organizations, international students, and families with children gathered  at the CBC Plaza in downtown Vancouver to mark the International Day  for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and to call on Prime Minister Trudeau to ensure permanent resident status for all migrants and refugees, including undocumented people, as he promised in December 2021.

Speakers raised the issue of undocumented people, the fears of deportation, the lack of access to healthcare, the vulnerability of children of parents with no status in the school system, basic issues of food security, the long waiting period and uncertainty, racism, and of course, living under the shadow of arrest, detention, and deportation. One young woman spoke for all of them when she said that she must be brave and tell her story and that of others who endure sacrifices and family separation.

The rally was also a reminder that there are over 1.7 million migrants, of which at least 500,000 are undocumented,  across Canada who grow food, take care of children, the sick and the elderly, and do essential work for our communities, yet are denied the rights available to everyone else because they do not have permanent resident status. Mostly in low wage essential jobs marked by precarity, these migrants are also the hardest hit by the affordability crisis.

Organizers raised the mandate given by Prime Minister Trudeau to Immigration Minister Sean Fraser to deliver a regularization program well over a year ago.  The rally called for an uncapped regularization program that grants permanent resident status (not temporary permits) to all undocumented people. This could lift half a million people out of poverty, give them the tools to protect themselves against abuse, ensure gender justice, unite families, and correct a historic wrong.

Chris Sorio, Secretary General of Migrante Canada, highlighted the call to stop the deportation of worker leader Danilo de Leon and to let him stay. Sorio also raised the challenge that on May First, International Workers Day, they will  organize and march together for all workers, demand equal rights for all workers, and status for all.  Filipino youth worked their way among the crowd and asked people to sign the paper petition to let Danilo de Leon stay.

In the cities of Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal, Niagara, Sudbury, and Victoria, migrant groups also held similar actions under the umbrella of the Migrant Rights Network (MRN), of which Migrante Canada is a member. Among the groups who gathered at the CBC Plaza were Sanctuary Health, Committee for Domestic Workers’ and Caregivers’ Rights, Migrante BC, Migrante Canada, Migrants Students United, Sanctuary Schools, and Worker Solidarity Network.

The call and response chant that reverberated across the CBC Plaza:

What do we want? Landed Status!

When do we want it?  NOW!

(PRESS RELEASE)