On Oct. 8, Canada’s House of Commons announced Bill C-12, which builds on Bill C-2 to majorly expand Canada’s power to revoke immigrants’ existing visas, permanent residency status, and work or study permits. This bill would allow mass deportations of these migrants without due process, in the name of public interest.
In response to Bill C-12, Solidarity Across Borders (SAB) Montreal, an anti-colonial migrant justice network, organized a caravan to the offices of four Montreal-based federal Members of Parliament (MPs) on Nov. 13: The Liberal Party of Canada’s Steven Guilbeault representing the Laurier—Sainte-Marie constituency, the Liberal Party’s Majorie Michel for Papineau, the Liberal Party’s Patricia Lattanzio for representing Saint-Léonard—Saint-Michel, and Le Bloc Québécois’s Mario Beaulieu for La Pointe-de-l’Île. The caravan read a letter at each MP’s office demanding that the officials reject Bill C-12.
In a written statement to The Tribune, an organizer with SAB Montreal who wished to remain unnamed explained how the bill will increase pressure on Canada’s immigration system, rather than improve it as the government claims.
“Without any way of regularizing their [residency] status, many people would remain or become undocumented,” they wrote. “Borders would become more deadly [….] Undocumented people will be pushed even further to the margins, unable to access basic services in fear that this could lead inadvertently to their deportation.”
During the SAB action, demonstrators waved banners and signs, gave speeches, and handed out informational flyers to onlookers. The organizer highlighted some of Bill C-12’s student-specific impacts, describing how students from countries experiencing violence will be prevented from applying for refugee status to stay in Canada if they have been in the country for over a year without already doing so.
“International students could see their study permits cancelled en masse, without any individualized assessment or means of appeal,” they wrote. “If a student were to come out as queer, or transition, and it is dangerous or illegal to be queer or trans in their country of origin, they would nonetheless be barred from filing a refugee claim in Canada.”
The organizer concluded by encouraging people to participate in SAB’s upcoming events and to generally join the fight for migrant justice.
“If not already impacted personally, all students have someone in their lives who will be impacted by [Bill C-12],” they wrote. “Whether [a] friend, a loved one, a neighbour, [a] TA, […] [Bill] C-12 and the current rise in xenophobia is really an attack on all of us.”
