Urgent Action Phone-in Friday: Don’t Force Ottawa Refugee Jihan Qunoo Back to Middle East to Rescue her Kids

 

On June 4, please make two phone calls (sample messages below) on the 52nd anniversary of Canada signing the Refugee Convention. The federal government must abide by its legal commitment and issue urgent temporary resident permits to Jihan Qunoo’s three girls, aged 6 to 11 – Aleen, Kenzi and Maryam – and husband Mohammed, stuck in Gaza. Otherwise, Jihan will be forced by Canada’s failure to act to board a plane June 9 at 4 pm and head back to the Middle East in a desperate bid to save her family on her own. We cannot allow this to happen when the Immigration Minister has all the paperwork needed to issue the permits, as well as the legislated power to do so on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

 

Canada has recognized Jihan’s refugee status but has failed to begin processing her family’s file. The permits would allow the family, traumatized by years of separation, deprivation, and war, to come to Ottawa and heal together during a processing period that recent estimates show could be up to 39 months.

 

It is almost two weeks since urgent temporary resident permit applications were submitted for the three traumatized children and their father. It is also almost a month since Jihan, an Ottawa refugee, went public, pleading with the federal government to reunite her three children and husband from the Gaza war zone where her immediate loved ones are desperately clinging to the hope of immediate reunification in Canada. 

 

Jihan’s plea to Prime Minister Trudeau and Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino is printed below.

 

Here are two messages with phone numbers. You can email tasc@web.ca to let us know you called.

 

SAMPLE MESSAGE 1

Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister’s Office, 613 992-4211 (They may try to transfer you to the useless immigration line. Don’t let them. Say you have a message to leave with the Prime Minister about an important human rights issue.)

 

Hi, my name is XXXXXXX and I am calling to support Ottawa Palestinian refugee Jihan Qunoo. She desperately needs to be reunited with her three traumatized children and husband from Gaza. Last month, the building next to them was hit, and 12 people were killed. The girls are terrified. Her application for early entrance temporary resident permits is sitting unanswered in Marco Mendicino’s office, so I am turning to you to urge you to speak with him to get those permits issued immediately. Otherwise, Jihan will be forced to fly to the Middle East herself with a flight scheduled for June 9 at 4 pm. Please don’t make her have to try and rescue her family on her own. Canada should step up, do the right thing, and issue those permits now. Thank you.

 

SAMPLE MESSAGE 2

Parliamentary Secretary to the Immigration Minister, Peter Schiefke 613-957-3744 (or, if full, 450-510-2305)

 

Hi, my name is XXXXXXX and I am calling to support Ottawa Palestinian refugee Jihan Qunoo. She desperately needs to be reunited with her three traumatized children and husband from Gaza. Last month, the building next to them was hit, and 12 people were killed. The girls are terrified. Her application for temporary resident permits is sitting unanswered in Marco Mendicino’s office, so I am turning to you as Parliamentary Secretary to urge you to speak with him to get those permits issued immediately. Otherwise, Jihan will be forced to fly to the Middle East herself on June 9 at 4 pm. Please don’t make her have to try and rescue her family on her own. Canada should step up, do the right thing, and issue those permits now. You yourself have spoken eloquently about your own grandmother’s flight as a refugee from a dictatorship, and so hopefully understand this urgent situation. Thank you

 

 

Jihan’s Desperate Plea to Reunite Her Family (the video will be uploaded shortly)

 

This is a plea to Prime Minister Trudeau and Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino.

My name is Jihan Qunoo and I am a refugee in Ottawa. I need you to issue temporary resident permits to my three little girls and husband no later than 12 noon on June 9 so they can get out of Gaza.

Otherwise, I am left with no choice but to board a flight the afternoon of June 9 to return to the Middle East and try to rescue them myself. Please don’t put me into this corner. You have everything you need to issue the permits. Each minute of waiting is torture for me and my family. 

I am desperate… 

Having to experience first-hand what my kids went through in recent conflict in Gaza, prior to the cease fire, has played havoc with my emotions. The fear of losing them forever or never having to hold them, hug them, hear their laughter or experience sibling bickering has created a sense of terror and extreme insecurity.  

I am from Gaza, have lived through tough times and this constant fear of not knowing what the future will hold is not new to me but nothing, and I say it again, that NOTHING compares to the terror that I now feel for not seeing my daughters again – I was not with them when the air strikes blew UP the building right next to my kids’ home with 12 people dead leaving 1 infant as a survivor. I was not with them when they were running around in fear and didn’t know where to hide, and I was not with them when they cling to each other and kept screaming during the night for me to help them!  

It is this extreme apprehension that has pushed me to make every desperate attempt a mother would make to connect with her kids. I cannot let another airstrike, or another lost life be the determining factor of the fate of my girls. I have to be with them, I have to protect them and be their sanctuary even if it risks all what I fought for, even if it risks that I go back to where I ran from. 

The ceasefire has provided a temporary reprieve from the constant threat but it has also created more desperation. My girls cannot sleep at night, they huddle in one room and sleep when it is day time as they believe and fear that death comes with the night.

Unless you can issue the temporary resident permits by June 9 at 12 noon, I will be forced to leave for the Middle East. I am not sure how I can bring them across the GAZA border but I have been trying, and will do whatever a mother can do to save her kids and her husband in the hope that they never have to go back to Gaza, that they never look back to the time of war and terror. I hope through the support of the Canadian government, I am able to bring them to Canada – where they have the opportunity to heal and move forward and have hopes and dreams that all young girls their age have the right to!! 

I do not want to make this difficult journey, but if we do not receive those permits, you will be forcing me to leave so that as a mother I can save them and be with them in any way I can…

Thank you for watching this video.

 

 

Call & Write to Reunite 3 Gaza Girls with their Ottawa Mom: May 31-June 1

(Sample email/phone message below!) 

This event is also on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/events/2759715057653025

On May 31 & June 1 (or whenever you get this message), please write/call Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino to demand that he help save the lives of three Gaza girls and their father by issuing Temporary Resident Permits that would allow them to reunite with their Ottawa mom while their permanent residency applications are processed (which could take at least 2 years).

The best interests of these children and Canada’s commitment to family reunification demand immediate action on their cases. It would be unconscionable to leave them in Gaza for at least another two years after UN Secretary-General António Guterres declared, "If there is a hell on earth, it is the lives of children in Gaza.” The impact of the recent attacks on Gaza, compounded by 15 years of living under one of the most draconian economic blockades ever imposed – described by The International Committee of the Red Cross as  "a collective punishment imposed in clear violation of Israel’s obligations under international humanitarian law” – have only confirmed the United Nations prediction, made in 2012, that by 2020 Gaza would be unliveable.

On October 5, 2020, Marco Mendicino tweeted: "Our government strongly believes in the importance of keeping families together—particularly during difficult times. Now, more than ever, family reunification is an important component of Canada’s immigration system.”

These are difficult times for anyone living in Gaza and for their loved ones abroad awaiting reunification. There is no better time to act, and no worse time to fail to act.

Below is a sample email and addresses to send it to, as well as a phone message to leave in Mendicino’s Ottawa and Toronto offices. 

Sample email

(please make sure you add in those cc-ed)

(Feel free to add in a personal statement at the beginning or end—ie, “As a parent, I cannot imagine the impossible situation this family is in” or “People’s lives should not be at risk because of politics” etc.

Subject Line: Please Issue Temporary Resident Permits to Gaza Girls Maryam (11), Kenzi (10) and Aleen (6) Qunoo and their Father 

To: IRCC.Minister-Ministre.IRCC@cic.gc.ca, Marco.Mendicino@parl.gc.ca

Cc: Marc.Garneau@parl.gc.ca, Soraya.MartinezFerrada@parl.gc.ca, tasc@web.ca, Jenny.Kwan@parl.gc.ca, Chandra.Arya@parl.gc.ca, Peter.Schiefke@parl.gc.ca,  Kamal.Khera@parl.gc.ca, Yasmin.Ratansi@parl.gc.ca, Salma.Zahid@parl.gc.ca, Catrina.Tapley@cic.gc.ca, mona.fortier@parl.gc.ca, Marwan.Tabbara@parl.gc.ca, Paul.Manly@parl.gc.ca, Iqra.khalid@parl.gc.ca, Joel.Lightbound@parl.gc.ca, Ruby.Sahota@parl.gc.ca, Lenore.Zann@parl.gc.ca, Majid.Jowhari@parl.gc.ca, Elizabeth.May@parl.gc.ca, Pam.Damoff@parl.gc.ca

Dear Minister Mendicino,

I am one of the 23,000+ people who have signed a petition in support of Ottawa resident Jihan Qunoo's family, who need your help to escape Gaza.

I am writing to demand that you exercise your power under Section 25.1 (1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (Humanitarian and compassionate considerations) to immediately issue Temporary Resident Permits to three traumatized children – Maryam (11), Kenzi (10) and Aleen (6) Qunoo – and their father,  Mohammed, so this family can be reunited with their Ottawa mother, Jihan. As you likely know from the news, the situation in Gaza – recently subjected to a bombing campaign estimated to be twice as destructive as the devastating 2014 attacks – is incredibly unsafe. Indeed, UN Secretary-General António Guterres declared recently: "If there is a hell on earth, it is the lives of children in Gaza."

The children’s and their father’s application for temporary residence permits – with all the necessary supporting documents that illustrate the ongoing danger they continue to face if left in Gaza – was sent to your office on May 26, 2021. Their permanent residency application was submitted in October, 2020. The family has been apart for almost two full years, with devastating consequences on the children, who suffer from major depressive disorder, severe asthma, anxiety, trouble eating, inconsolable crying fits, and the ongoing and realistic fear that going outside could risk their lives in the event a bomb falls out of the sky from the drones that continually fly over their neighbourhood. 

They barely escaped the latest onslaught of violence; the building next to them was hit, and the kids’ windows were blown out. There were no bomb shelters for them to seek safety. Even before the war, electricity was scarce, schools and health care were in dreadful shape, and the water was severely polluted. Conditions are far worse than they've ever been,  and belligerent rhetoric could at any time escalate to renewed bombing.

There is nothing complicated in this request. You can issue a permit immediately. Failure to do so will have tragic consequences for this family.

On October 5, 2020, you tweeted: "Our government strongly believes in the importance of keeping families together—particularly during difficult times. Now, more than ever, family reunification is an important component of Canada’s immigration system.”

There can be no more difficult times than the ones facing anyone enduring daily life in Gaza. For the husband and children of Ottawa resident Jihan Qunoo, the only hope left is the issuance of Temporary Resident Permits that would allow them to live safely with Jihan in Canada as their permanent residency applications are finalized. 

They deserve our support, particularly during this difficult time.

Your Name
Address

++++++++

Please make two phone calls as well!

Marco Mendocino’s office (leave a message if you can): 613-992-6361, 416-781-5583

Sample phone message (please leave one if you get the answering machine—PLEASE only leave respectful messages. The latest round of attacks is upsetting for all, but negative comments or hateful rhetoric will only hurt the family)

Hi, my name is XXXXX and I'm calling from TOWN, PROVINCE. I’m calling to support three Gaza Girls and their father. The Qunoo girls –  Maryam (11), Kenzi (10) and Aleen (6) – and their father need Temporary Resident Permits immediately to escape the horrible conditions in Gaza. Please issue the permits today so they can be reunited with their mom, Jihan, in Ottawa. Everyday you delay only increases the risk they face. It’s the right thing to do. Thank you."

More information: Rural Refugee Rights Network, tasc@web.ca

Help Get This Ottawa Mom's Kids Out of Gaza and to Canada!

 

(You can sign the petition at http://chng.it/RjycwGZt )

Ottawa aid worker, mother of 3, and Palestinian refugee Jihan Qunoo has desperately waited 2 years to reunite with her young girls (aged 6, 10 and 11), now stuck in Gaza under constant bombardment. The Canadian government must immediately issue temporary resident permits to rescue them from the daily terror of a war zone and the long-term effects of separation from their mom, including major depressive disorder, severe asthma, anxiety, trouble eating, inconsolable crying fits, and having no one who can properly care for them (health challenges prevent both their father and grandmother from providing the care they need). Schools are closed, and e-learning is impossible with lack of internet and electricity. Jihan worries that there are no bomb shelters for the children to take cover.

Jihan is a hard-working, well-established Ottawa resident working both a full time job as well as additional part-time jobs to financially support her family in Gaza. But the stress of separation – especially now as the horror of war once again grips the area – is taking an incalculable toll, just as it would on any parent and any child. When Jihan calls her children – Aleen, Mariam, Kenzi – she can hear them crying from fear as bombs explode in the background.

Issuing the girls Temporary Resident Permits would allow them to reunite with their mother in Canada, improve their physical and mental health, and provide them the time together they need to recover from two impossibly difficult years. It would also allow them the opportunity to enjoy much-needed safety until conditions considerably improve in Gaza and their family sponsorship application is expedited and completed. 

Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino has the authority and discretion under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to grant these permits. This is a unique and exceptional situation, involving serious danger to the safety of three young girls in a war zone where, even absent the current escalation of military attacks, the devastating effects of a long-term blockade mean these girls do not have access to the educational, psychological, and medical services they need to address the significant trauma afflicting them at such a tender age.

Failure to act now will cause irreparable emotional and physical harm, set the kids back in their education, and impair their ability to grow up in a healthy and safe environment.

The Government of Canada has long been obligated to act in a humanitarian and compassionate manner in such cases given  “those facts, established by the evidence, which would excite in a reasonable [person] in a civilized community a desire to relieve the misfortunes of another” Chirwa v Canada (Minister of Citizenship and Immigration) (1970), 4 IAC 338.

Canada is also obligated by both domestic and international commitments to act in a manner consistent with an approach “taking into account the best interests of a child directly affected.” Indeed, Article 3(1) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child confirms “In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.” The Minister’s own guidelines point out that “factors relating to a child’s emotional, social, cultural and physical welfare should be taken into account when raised.”

Temporary Resident Permits must be issued immediately to Aleen, Mariam, Kenzi as well as to their father, Mohammed.

Thank you!

Media Coverage: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-mother-children-gaza-permanent-resident-1.6024068

Detained Nicaraguan asylum seeker to be deported rather than reunited with wife in Canada--Unless We Stop it!

Receiving Asylum Should Not be a Perverse Game Show Where Which Door You Pick Determines Whether you Find Safety

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Detained Nicaraguan asylum seeker to be deported rather than reunited with wife in Canada. #FreeRoberto

#EndFamilySeparations

Roberto Carlos Terán Rivera is facing deportation this Thursday (April 29th) even though he legally has the right to present at the Canadian border to join his wife, an asylum seeker with a case in progress in Canada. Roberto fears returning to Nicaragua. Details about his case can found in a recent Toronto Star article:

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2021/04/23/why-choosing-the-wrong-door-may-have-cost-this-man-his-chance-to-claim-asylum-in-canada-and-rejoin-his-wife.html  (Full text below)

Roberto continues to pursue his legal rights before the Courts and hopes for a judicial stay of his removal to Nicaragua. Specifically, his attorneys in the United States that are representing him on a pro bono basis have appealed the decision of the District Court.  However, this wrong can also be made right by the U.S. government simply permitting Roberto to proceed to Canada as he has argued before the Court is his right to do so under the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) and pursuant to Canadian Law.

Maureen Silcoff, President of the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers (CARL), has called for government officials to act: “Officials must pull the plug on his removal and allow him to come to Canada. The time to act is now, before it’s too late.”

Please Free Asylum Seeker Roberto Terán Rivera to join his wife in Canada. 

For details, contact Canadian lawyer Joanna Berry: Joanna@berrylaw.ca; 519-432-4568

 

Why choosing the wrong ‘door’ may have cost this man his chance to claim asylum in Canada and rejoin his wife

By

 

Nicholas Keung 

Toronto Star

5 min

 

Roberto Carlos Teran Rivera had every right to try to join his wife in Canada.

All the asylum-seeker had to do, by law, was show up at an official crossing point along the U.S.-Canada border and make his claim.

But a twist of fate saw Teran Rivera choose the wrong “door” for his entry into this country.

Now the 39-year-old sits in a holding cell in New York, awaiting deportation next Thursday to Nicaragua, a country Amnesty International says is in a “human rights crisis” under President Daniel Ortega’s dictatorial regime.

This week, Teran Rivera’s last-ditch effort to be released — and join his wife, Blanca Maydeling Castillo Saenz, a refugee claimant in Quebec — was refused by a New York court.

“The court recognized that Teran Rivera’s alleged plight is sympathetic on a human level,” wrote U.S. District Court Judge John L. Sinatra, Jr. in dismissing the detainee’s plea for release.

“The political branches of government — not this court — have authority to address such concerns.”

How did it all go so wrong?

Castillo Saenz says she and her husband, along with her brother, fled Nicaragua in November 2018 via Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala before arriving in Mexico. The three were separated after crossing into the U.S. and were detained at different facilities.

Teran Rivera was deported back to Nicaragua after a month, but Castillo Saenz was released shortly after and ultimately made it to Canada in June 2019 for asylum.

Late last year, her husband returned to the U.S. again and made his attempt to join her in Canada.

Asylum seekers are often turned back at the Canada-U.S. border. Under the Safe Third Country Agreement that’s been in place since 2004, each country recognizes the other as a safe place to seek protection. That means Canada can turn back potential refugees who arrive at land ports of entry along the Canada-U.S. border on the basis they should pursue their claims in the States, the country where they first arrived.

However, exemptions are granted to those — such as Teran Rivera — who already have family members in Canada.

He would have been allowed in at a land port of entry.

Teran Rivera’s critical mistake was trying to cross into Canada through a side road connecting Quebec and Vermont.

While Teran Rivera could have just breezed past a Canadian port of entry to join his wife, he followed the now-famed Roxham Road, an unguarded border point in Quebec, into Canada instead.

Under border restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic, all such irregular migrants have been banned and subject to return to the other country.

Teran Rivera said he was apprehended by Canadian officials upon crossing into Quebec.

“I don’t know why he didn’t cross through an official port of entry,” Castillo Saenz told the Star this week through a translator.

“I was waiting for the call from immigration to meet with him in Canada, but, sadly, I received a call where I was informed my husband was detained by U.S. immigration.”

Even then, the door wasn’t meant to be shut on him permanently.

Canadian officials handed him a piece of paper to go back to the U.S. He said he was told “this was temporary” and that he could carry on applying for protection in Canada later.

However, Teran Rivera has been held at the Buffalo Federal Detention Facility in Batavia, N.Y., since January.

In his plea under a habeas corpus application, he said he shouldn’t have been detained in the U.S. when he had a lawful right to enter Canada and wished to immediately “self-deport” to the north of the border.

“My intention was always to reunite with my wife, who is in Canada. If I had been allowed to ask for admission to Canada, I would have,” he said in an affidavit filed with the U.S. court as part of his petition for release. “I feared for my life and I still do fear for my life in Nicaragua.”

Heather Neufeld, a University of Ottawa immigration law professor, says Canadian officials have made it clear in Teran Rivera’s “direct back order” that he was not being found inadmissible or ineligible to make an asylum claim here.

He was turned back only as a result of the Order in Council that presently bans non-essential border crossing, she said, and letting him come to Canada would not have frustrated the purpose of the Safe Third Country Agreement.

“There is simply no official mechanism through which Canada Border Services Agency could have processed Mr. Teran Rivera under the STCA exception without him leaving and re-entering, given that he did not initially enter Canada at a port of entry,” Neufeld noted in an affidavit as a legal expert for Teran Rivera.

However, the U.S. justice said the district court did not have jurisdiction over requests to stay a removal order, let alone to make a declaration to deport him to Canada only.

Maureen Silcoff, president of the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers, says human rights in Nicaragua are at a crisis point and last year Canada granted asylum to 90 per cent or 155 of the 171 Nicaraguan refugee claimants here.

“This request for refugee protection went off the rails,” Silcoff said. “He came to the Canadian border at Door A instead of Door B, so instead of having his protection needs assessed in Canada based on his wife being here, he is now caught in a web of detention and removal in the U.S.

“There has to be a better way. Canada Border Services Agency turned him away and handed him over to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, who jailed him and scheduled him for deportation, even though Canada said he could come back.”

Canada Border Services Agency did not respond the Star’s request for comment.

“The U.S. court was sympathetic and said a political branch of the government could deal with the problem,” she said. “Officials must pull the plug on his removal and allow him to come to Canada. The time to act is now, before it’s too late.”

 

 

After 24 years, a Roma Refugee's Happy Victory and Request for Support

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy News! And a request for support. 

 

We are thrilled to say that after living in Canada for 24 years in the shadows without status, an intensive campaign has finally won permanent resident status for Roksana Hajrizi, a tireless Roma refugee rights activist who led the campaign to get her Mama Celina granted PR status as well. 

 

While this is good news, as always with Canadian immigration, it is one step forward, two steps to the side or back. In June, 2020, despite the significant risk to him, Roksana Hajrizi's father was wrongfully deported after living here for 23 years. As he awaits a possible return to Canada under a sponsorship (another lengthy process), he must live in the face of the virulent anti-Roma racism in Eastern Europe, where finding housing and employment is impossible. 

 

The Rural Refugee Rights Network is collecting donations to assist Roksana and her father with some of those expenses. Imagine living in a country where your identity prevents you from obtaining the most essential basics to survive. That is where her father is trying to survive now. 

 

If you can contribute something, anything, please send an etransfer to tasc@web.ca or a cheque to Homes not Bombs at 2583 Carling Ave., Unit M052, Ottawa, ON K2B 7H7 (memo: Roksana). Meantime, congratulations to Roksana!

A Not-Quite Silent Night at the Toronto Refugee Jail

Carolers Bring Candelight and Songs of
Hope on Xmas Eve

                                                Outside the Toronto Refugee Jail, 2008

 

December 24, 2004, Toronto -- The stretch of Rexdale Blvd. between Martingrove Blvd. and Highway 27 is one of the dreariest in Toronto. A desolate airport area strip with the constant roar of transport trucks and flights overhead is home to a nondescript government of Canada building, a converted hotel which is now a jail for refugees.

Run by the Corbel Management Group, a private security company, the 72-room Heritage Inn, replacing the former Celebrity Inn refugee jail, but without any particular signage, is just another building that thousands of people pass by every day, few knowing the purpose of the facility. And while we do not know the details of the contract with Corbel, one might readily assume that, as with other privately-run prison facilities, profits are made by keeping as many people behind bars as possible.

What used to be advertised as a "pet and dog-friendly" airport area hotel is now "home" to a range of people including young children, for whom there is a small token slide in the barbed wire-enclosed outdoor area. Some are detained awaiting deportation, others until someone can provide impossibly high bond for their release.

Few likely know when they are getting out, a form of indefinite incarceration without charge which the International Red Cross has condemned at Guantanamo Bay -- that criticism could apply equally here at home and in refugee detention facilities around the globe.

On Christmas Eve, while Prime Minister Paul Martin's Xmas message of respect for cultural diversity was released to the media, this prison for refugees was serenaded for 90 minutes by a group of carolers who brought a series of songs and placards to support freedom for those detained simply because they are refugees.

While Martin may be blissfully unaware of such injustices (indeed, his choice of vacation spot for the next two weeks is one of the world's worst human rights violators, Morocco), Immigration Minister Judy Sgro should certainly know better, her concern for the rights of women ringing hollow considering who is jailed here, and why.

Detention of refugees and immigrants is increasingly common in Canada, with upwards of 700 women, children and men behind bars on a daily basis because of minor paperwork screws-ups, "failure" to follow complex rules that are not understood without hard-to-access translation or support services, coming to Canada with a false ID (incredibly common, but recognized even by Canadian courts as a necessity for one's protection) and a black-booted immigration force which likes to play SWAT in the middle of the night, hauling people out of their beds and whisking them away to jail.

While it is bitterly cold this night, with a wind chill at minus 20, there is a certain warming, emotional pull towards this building and its inmates. Inside are hundreds of stories of folks who have escaped persecution in one country only to be re-persecuted upon their arrival in Canada or, in numerous instances, after spending several years here.

Our plan is simple. To light candles, to hold placards, and to sing holiday songs of hope and resistance, with updated lyrics to traditional favourites. About 15 of us huddle close to the back barbed wire fence, from where we can see a group of men in a far window. We launch into a version of The 12 Days of IRPA, a listing of the 12 reasons why, under the immigration and refugee "protection" act, some folks are likely to be detained. By the 12th verse, the songs goes like this:

On the 12th day of IRPA why did they detain me?
For going to this vigil
Standing for our rights
Not speaking English
Being called Mohamed
Jokin' bout Bush-laden
Not owning millions
Having Screwed up Papers
Pro-test-ing War!
Taking flying lessons
Reading suspect books
Being born an Arab
All for your national security!

Sometimes solidarity can only be standing in one place and singing out loud, hoping one's voice and one's love can climb over the 12-foot high barbed wire fences that serve as a last line of defence for Canadian society against those "housed" inside. One by one individual refugee detainees come to their windows, noticing the small group lit by an outdoor light and the odd flicker of one or two candles which have resisted the cold wind and continued flickering, refusing to give in to the night.

One of the first to wave is a young man, probably no more than 13 or 14. We suddenly see two very young children peel back a curtain, their eyes filled with wonder at the site of the shivering singers and their placards. It's hard to tell who is more excited: us at seeing them, or them seeing us. They are blowing us kisses, some jumping up and down with elated surprise to see us there, others waving frenetically and giving us the peace sign. Others write messages in the window with their fingers: whatever their language, we feel a strong bond as we sing The Twelve Days of IRPA, Rudy the Racist MP and Away in Detention (see lyrics below).

It reminds us of similar trips to the back of the Metro West Detention Centre, where our presence is greeted by a pounding on the thick glass windows, an amazing sound which speaks of the inmates' desperate disbelief: there are actually people who care about them, who have not forgotten them, and it is a reminder of their own humanity in an institution which does everything to rob them of their human identity.

After a rousing rendition of Silent Night, we wave goodbye and move towards the front of the jail, where we are greeted by a second round of half a dozen latecomers, who will take up a later shift singing and waving to the detainees. The signs which read "It's not a crime to be a refugee," "Stop Jailing Refugees," "You are not Forgotten" and "You Shall be Released" stay behind, affixed to the barbed wire fences.

It's a small thing that we've done, but perhaps we've been able to inspire a bit of hope in some folks who could use some after the way the government of Canada has treated them. For even though it is the holiday season, and hollow entreaties to peace and human kindness echo through the halls of Canadian power, the deportation assembly line continues apace, with news a few hours earlier that a Somali man who has lived here for 15 years is set to be torn apart from his wife and four children.

As we warm up in our vehicles on the way back downtown, we hear the odd report about refugees flooding across border points in advance of the deadline for implementation of "Safe Third Country."

The reports do not describe the true situation, though, of refugees without proper winter clothes shivering for hours on school buses, with others forced to wait in bathroom stalls which proved one of the few sources of warmth on the coldest day of the year.

The Canadian government has known about this last-minute rush of refugees who will try and come to Canada, but has done nothing to make sure there is room at the inn on this Christmas Eve.

It's yet another reminder that we need to continue challenging the government on its racist immigration and refugee rejection policies, its detentions, its secret trials, its two-faced approach to the issue. And that we need to continue reaching out a hand in friendship and solidarity to those struggling in this winter wonderland.

Our next vigil in Toronto is Friday, December 31, 12 Noon, at CSIS headquarters, 277 Front Street West. "Free the Five in 2005" will highlight the ongoing incarceration of five Muslim men detained indefinitely without charge or bail on secret evidence neither they nor their lawyers are allowed to see. All are at risk of deportation to torture.

 

STRUGGLING IN A WINTER WONDERLAND

(To the tune of "Winter Wonderland")

Immigrants for cheap hires
And their bosses, cheatin' liars
Failed Refugee Claims
On reasons that shame
Struggling in this winter wonderland

Try to come across the border
To this land of law and order
If your skin is brown
You can't go to town
Struggling in this winter wonderland

At the airport they will ask you questions
Have you ever been to Pakistan?
Are you hiding something in your suitcase?
Welcome to our democratic land!

Later on, in detention
Hopefully they'll pay attention
To your human rights
This season of lights
Struggling in this winter wonderland
Struggling in this winter wonderland

 

PJ, THE AGENT

(To the tune of "Frosty the Snowman")

PJ, the agent thinks the world is black and white
If your name's "Hassan", he thinks you're wrong
If it's George Bush, you're all right.

PJ, the agent fears a Muslim with a book
And a video of the CN Tower
will make him lock you up.

There must have been some trauma
When PJ was just a boy
Cause he never learned to trust or love,
Just to torture girls and boys.

PJ, the agent thinks ignorance is bliss
He knows nothing but what he's been told
By his bosses at CSIS

He'll never catch a terrorist
Cause he's blinded by his fears
He'll only torment innocents
with his spying and his jeers.

PJ, the agent has to hurry on his way
Cause Canadians don't want CSIS
And they've got to go away.

Bumpety, bump, bump
Bumpety, bump, bump
Look at PJ run
Bumpety, bump, bump
Bumpety, bump, bump
We've got CSIS on the run.

 

AWAY IN DETENTION

(To the tune of "Away in a Manger")

Away in detention, no crib for a bed,
The little child refugee lays down her sweet head.
The guards look at her through the cracks in the door,
The little child refugee asleep on the floor.

The airport is noisy, the baby awakes.
Her mother is sickly, she shivers and shakes.
We will not forget you, so please don't lose hope.
We're sorry that Judy Sgro has played this cruel joke.

We're near you child refugee, we're not far away.
We're working to speed up your new Freedom Day.
Bless all the dear children who are detained tonight.
You've called us to conscience for you we will fight.

Away in detention, no crib for a bed,
The little child refugee lays down her sweet head.
The guards look at her through the cracks in the door,
The little child refugee asleep on the floor.

 

RUDY THE RACIST MP

(To the tune of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer")

Rudolph, the racist MP
Had a crappy attitude
And if you ever heard him
You might even say he's crude

If you were not a white male
He would laugh and call you names
He'd call for closed up borders
And hope we'd all look the same!

Then one freezing Christmas Eve
Carolers came to sing
Rudy with your racist blight
You could be transformed tonight!

Rudy then saw the error
Of his narrow minded views
Rudy the refugee sponsor
Came to love all Muslims and Jews!

 

Report from Toronto Action for Social Change.

 

tasc@web.ca, (416) 651-5800, www.homesnotbombsnow.ca

We Did It! Baby Zoe Wins Citizenship, Enters Canada With Her Long-Exiled Parents

We are thrilled to share that, due to your public support and pressure, a Calgary family’s nightmare has come to an end. After being exiled by the Canadian government for over a year, the Muth family – Derek, Emilie and Zoe – returned home on November 30.

 

What should have been a simple matter was turned into a traumatic odyssey for this young family. Ottawa had refused to allow entry to their legally adopted 2.5-year-old daughter Zoe, who faces complications from her Sickle Cell Anemia that have been life threatening. This crisis – which took a huge emotional and financial toll – resulted from an administrative failure by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to finalize Zoe’s Canadian citizenship in a timely manner.

 

On November 16, Zoe was finally granted her Canadian citizenship, opening the door to finally coming home. As the Muth family shared in a statement, it was the combination of media attention, the petition with over 38,000 signatures, and the letters people sent to officials, that saw their case reclassified as “High-Profile.”

 

Throughout this nightmare, the Muths have recognized that their ordeal is not an isolated case, but rather part of a systematic lack of care for far too many vulnerable people, as well as a failure by Ottawa to follow its own legal obligations to children and families.

 

“If this is the treatment of Canadian citizens, then I can't imagine what refugees go through,” Derek told CBC, adding that they saw first hand the “systemic prejudices and systemic injustices” faced by so many. In a statement released by the Muth family, they declared: “In the end, it was not the merit of our case, International Conventions or urgent medical needs that put our process in motion, but rather the public outcry. Who knows how long we would have been waiting without your support?”

 

If the Canadian government thinks this matter is now closed, they have another thing coming. Putting the Muths through this impossible nightmare has turned them into advocates who have pledged to work for the changes needed to reunify families and welcome newcomers.

 

The Muth family want the 38,300+ people who supported them to know:  “You reminded us that we are never alone, and words will never be able to fully express our gratitude.” (See original petition at https://www.change.org/p/marco-mendicino-allow-baby-zoe-into-canada-with-her-calgary-parents-now)

 

It is so gratifying to celebrate such victories. But as we celebrate, we also remember that there are countless thousands of others in their shoes who deserve our support to ensure equally happy resolutions.

 

Thanks again. Your support has helped so many during this challenging year. We have much more work to do. 

 

Stay tuned!

 

Matthew Behrens

Rural Refugee Rights Network

tasc@web.ca   

December 2, 2020 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++

BELOW:

The Muth Family Statement

CBC Coverage

 

Message from the Muth Family: 

It is likely that without public support, we would still be waiting on Canadian Immigration, and would continue to wait until the pandemic subsides. We could not have done this without you. Thank you to the 38,000+ people who read our story, signed and shared this petition, and sent e-mails advocating for this positive outcome. Watching the signature count rise not only urged the government to do the right thing, but also personally encouraged us during a dark season. You reminded us that we are never alone, and words will never be able to fully express our gratitude. 

 

Petitions like this make a difference. The combination of articles in the media, this petition, and the letters to officials, reclassified our case as “High-Profile.” This designation was significant in bringing IRCC leadership attention to the Accra office. It meant that a staff member in the Minister’s office was brought into the details of our case, and it enabled them to hold the mission to account on our file. In response to the attention, a visa officer was flown to Accra ahead of schedule to look at our file. In the end, it was not the merit of our case, International Conventions or urgent medical needs that put our process in motion, but rather the public outcry. Who knows how long we would have been waiting without your support?

 

Unfortunately we know this will not be the last time an adopting family experiences injustice, so we will continue to advocate the best we are able until there is reform. We observed numerous systemic issues that need to be addressed and changed. Until change comes, the public will play an important role in reunifying families and welcoming new Canadians. 

 

We want to publicly acknowledge a few key people, without whom we could not have done this: 

Alicia Backman-Beharry – Lawyer, Holthe Immigration Law 

Matthew Behrens – Advocate, Rural Refugee Rights Network 

Sarah Rieger – CBC Journalist 

 

 

WE’RE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS! THANK YOU!!! 

 

 

 

CBC Article: 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/muth-family-adoption-1.5821401