status

Elections 2011 — MAY DAY: ‘Vote’ on the Streets. 6th Annual May Day of Action for Status for All!

May 01, 2011 (International Workers Day)

1 p.m.
Rally and March. Free Meal.
Queen St. W & Jameson St. (Parkdale)
TTC: 47 South from Lansdowne Station
Wheelchair accessible van, departs from Dundas West station at 12:30 p.m.

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They want the ‘very ethnic vote,’ but they don’t want immigrants. On the eve of the federal election, resist the racist political agenda: ‘Vote’ on Streets!

On May 1, International Workers Day, join tens of thousands of people across North America and millions across the planet. Workers waged and unwaged, migrants with and without status: we refuse to be silent in the face of deepening austerity, job losses, environmental destruction, imperialist wars and corporate greed.

We are encouraging people to bring their dreams, visions and hopes for justice and dignity on placards, on clothing and on pieces of paper. We will be accompanied by marching bands, floats, puppets, and more.

Note: Education Not Deportation, Palestine Solidarity, Environmental Justice, Anti-Poverty, Queer Liberation and Gender Justice, Health for All, Migrant Workers and Anti-War Contingents have been called. Organize your own contingent! Let us know by emailing [email protected] or just show up.

For more information on the different contigents participating, pleasse see here.

BECAUSE Family sponsorships now take up to 14 years and refugee acceptance rates have been cut by 56%.

BECAUSE Border guards now have the power to invade women’s shelters.

BECAUSE Temporary migrant workers deemed ‘low-skill’ will be thrown out of Canada after 4 years.

BECAUSE Every day in Toronto, 70 community members are swept up and deported.

BECAUSE Harper wants the ‘very ethnic’ vote, but doesn’t want immigrants.

BECAUSE Ford wants to sell public housing, cut TTC buses and charge fees for services; cuts that will impact women, migrant and poor communities the worst.

BECAUSE Migrant justice organizers have been beaten, arrested, jailed and continue to face police harassment.

BECAUSE The Canadian state continues to resist indigenous sovereignty and liberation.

BECAUSE Our Dreams Don’t Fit in Ballot Boxes.

For all these reasons and more, we will take to the streets. Democracy doesn’t begin and end with a ballot box. Unwilling to wait for the change we want to see, we will create it. From the ground up. By the power of the people.

WHY NO ONE IS ILLEGAL MAY DAY OF ACTION?

In April 2006, days after Harper came to power, he began a series of round ups in the Dufferin Mall area, racially profiling, arresting and detaining hundreds of migrants without full status. In response, thousands of people took to the streets for the 1st Annual May Day of Action for Status for All in Toronto.

We did so in conjunction with the massive immigrant rights demonstrations in the United States and keeping with the history of International Workers Day to defend the most marginalized members of the working class.

For the last six years, we’ve fought the Federal Tories at every step, stopping deportations, attacking further regressive immigration policies and supporting our communities.

We’ve won access to schools, to food, to healthcare, to anti-violence against women services for some. At the same time we’ve lost some of our strongest voices to detention, and deportation — most recently Daniel Garcia, deported from Parkdale on January 1, 2011.

This May Day, we will march from Parkdale, where Daniel Garcia was arrested to Dufferin Mall, where the U.S.-style immigration enforcement raids began over 5 years ago.

For more information, please see: http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/MayDay

Krystalline Kraus

krystalline kraus is an intrepid explorer and reporter from Toronto, Canada. A veteran activist and journalist for rabble.ca, she needs no aviator goggles, gas mask or red cape but proceeds fearlessly...