Vol. 81/No. 32 August 28, 2017
Hundreds rally in Quebec to defend refugees
“We are here with them, to support them and to help them establish themselves,” organizer Serge Bouchereau told the crowd through a megaphone.The action was called by Solidarity Across Borders and the Non-Status Haitian Action Committee.
More than 70 percent of recent arrivals are originally from Haiti. They fear deportation from the U.S. because of Washington’s announcement in May that Haitians’ temporary protected status will be removed in January 2018. Haitians got this status in 2010 after an earthquake devastated their country.
Ottawa also granted Haitians special status, but last summer the Canadian government rescinded it. Since March 2017 the Canada Border Services Agency has deported 296 Haitians.
Philippe Tessier, Communist League candidate for mayor of Montreal, joined the rally. “I call for amnesty for all undocumented workers in Canada, and call for immediate access to decent housing, medical care, education and the right to work for those arriving here,” he told fellow participants.
Tessier and CL campaign supporters went door to door in a working-class neighborhood close to the stadium and a few days later in Hemmingford, near the border, to discuss and debate the League’s call for amnesty to help unite working people. They found interest in the League’s program, selling two copies of Is Socialist Revolution in the US Possible?— one each in French and Spanish, and a copy of the Militant. They collected several signatures to put Tessier on the November ballot.
According to Quebec Minister of Immigration Kathleen Weil, the number crossing from New York into Quebec has tripled to 150 a day this month. In addition to the 600 people housed in Olympic Stadium, others are staying at the YMCA, university residences in Montreal, a vacant hospital and school. The army started erecting tents near the border Aug. 9.
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