On International Human Rights Day… Stand Up for Justice!

On November 23, 2009, 57 people were brutally killed in the province of Maguindanao, Philippines in the most barbaric and politically-motivated killings in the history of the country.  The victims include innocent women, children, 2 lawyers and 30 media people.  The Philippines is now the most dangerous place in the world for journalists!

Enough is enough!  We need to demand to end all political killings!  We need to demand to end impunity!  We need to demand respect for human rights!  We need to say Never Again to Martial Law!  We need to:  

STAND UP FOR JUSTICE!
Stop the Killings in the Philippines!
Never again to Martial Law!

A Day of Action against Impunity
Join the Solidarity Vigil Protest

International Human Rights Day
Thursday, December 10, 2009 – 6:00 PM
Trinity-St. Paul United Church [The Fireside Room]
427 Bloor St. West, Toronto
[Steps west of the Spadina subway station]

This vigil protest is in response to a call by the newly formed November 23 Movement and the International Federation of Journalists [IFJ] for International Day of Action against Impunity on December 9 [though in Toronto we will hold this on December 10th in time for the International Human Rights Day.

We invite everyone to join us in raising these urgent calls:
Justice for Slain Journalists and all Victims of the Maguindanao Massacre!
Stop the Killings in the Philippines!
End Impunity, Justice Now!
Never again to Martial Law!

Please come in BLACK SHIRTS.

Contact: Tan Canchela at 647-833-1023; fmw.movement@yahoo.ca; migrante.ontario@gmail.com.

Convenors: Bayan Canada, Migrante-Ontario, Community Alliance for Social Justice [CASJ], The Philippine Reporter, and Filipino Migrant Workers’ Movement.  [Other organizations are welcome to become part of this group.]

Visit http://migrante.ca/on

Visit http://www.bulatlat.com/main/tag/ampatuan-massacre/ for special coverage of the Ampatuan massacre.

Justice for Juana Tejada

Picket rally for cancer patient facing deportation

Friday, June 27, 2008
4:00 p.m.
Citizenship and Immigration Canada office
5343 Dundas Street West (across Kipling subway station parking lot)

Citizenship and Immigration Canada has denied cancer patient, Juana Tejada, her right to stay.

Allow Juana Tejada to remain in Canada for treatment and to receive permanent status so she can sponsor her family.

For more information:
migrante.ontario@gmail.com
www.migrante.ca

* * * * *

14 June 2008

We condemn the decision of Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) not to grant permanent resident status to Juana Tejada on the ground of her terminal illness. This is a gross violation of the basic human right to life enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Juana came to Canada under the Live-in Caregiver Program in the hope that she and her family would have a better life. Grinding poverty and unemployment in the Philippines push over 2,000 Filipinos out of the country every day.

After twenty-four months of serving Canadian society through domestic work, Juana is now eligible to apply for permanent residency. But since 2006 when her cancer was first discovered in a medical exam for her application for permanent residence, CIC continues to deny Juana her right to stay in Canada. A CIC case officer argues that her “health condition might reasonably be expected to cause excessive demand to health and social services,” and thus, an economic burden to the Canadian government.

Migrante Ontario, along with other concerned groups, organizations, and individuals, demands that the Canadian government allow Juana Tejada to stay, and to sponsor and bring her family to Canada. In the first place, caregivers should have been given permanent residency status, recognizing the importance and high quality of their service to Canadian society, and the continuing high demand for that service.

Juana Tejada fulfilled the requirements, stringent as they are, set in the LCP. She worked in the service of a Canadian family and all in good faith. That she fell ill was not of her own will. All she wanted was to be able to bring her family over, be reunited with them and together share the fruits of her hard work.

Yet, the Tejada case and other similar ones clearly demonstrate how the Canadian government treats migrant and foreign temporary workers. While enticing cheap labour from crisis-ridden countries like the Philippines to sustain its own economic progress, it is quick to dispose of those that it considers ” damaged goods after the system has bled them dry.

And as the right to life includes the right to medical care, Migrante Ontario insists that the Canadian government continue to provide Juana Tejada, as it would its own citizens, the proper medical service and health care especially in her time of great need.

Justice for Juana Tejada!
No to deportation!
Permanent residence now!