Rally calls on Ottawa to offer residency to all undocumented migrants

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As many celebrated Mother’s Day Sunday, protesters in several cities across Canada, including Montreal, rallied to draw attention to the precarious situation of migrants living without permanent residency status in Canada.

“This is a very sad day for a lot of women who have been left behind by the Canadian government, which has decided not to include undocumented people in the government’s regularization program”, said Eloy Rivas, a spokesperson for Solidarity Across Borders, which organized Montreal’s event.

About 60 people gathered in front of the prime minister’s Montreal office on Crémazie Blvd. Sunday afternoon to listen to speeches and chant slogans like “Solidarité avec les sans papiers” (Solidarity with the undocumented”), as passing cars honked to show support.

The day of action was held mainly to denounce a new federal permanent residency policy that critics say leaves out too many people who are living precariously in Canada, unable to work legally. As a wealthy country, Canada should grant full immigration status to all migrants, refugees, foreign students and undocumented people currently living here, without exception, they argue.

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Hady Anne, a spokesperson for Solidarity Across Borders, said people live without residency status in Canada for years, even decades, and many are exploited by companies and individuals who pay them less than minimum wage, or sometimes nothing at all.

“These are people who can’t open their mouths and complain. … There are women, children and men who are exploited in this country and it is unacceptable,” he said.

On April 14, Federal Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Marco Mendicino announced a new policy that will grant permanent status to temporary workers employed in hospitals and long-term care homes, and in about 95 other job categories deemed essential, as well as to international students who have graduated from a Canadian post-secondary institution.

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To be eligible, the workers must have at least one year of work experience in Canada in an occupation on the list of jobs deemed essential by the government. That list includes cashiers, service station attendants, store shelf stockers, construction trades, repair trades, transport truck drivers, farm workers, home child-care providers and many others.

In all, the policy is intended to provide permanent residency to 20,000 temporary workers in health care, 30,000 temporary workers in other essential jobs, and 40,000 international students. The pathway to residency will be open until Nov. 5, 2021 or until 90,000 new permanent residents have been admitted. To qualify for the program, graduates and workers must be proficient in either English or French, authorized to work, and working in Canada at the time of their application.

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But protesters say that leaves out the most vulnerable.

Organizers read statements from mothers currently detained at the Immigration Holding Centre in Laval, and others living in Montreal without immigration status but too afraid of being deported to attend the rally in person.

Among those who dared to speak out at the event was Maria Guadalupe Sanchez, who came to Montreal from Mexico City in 2008, leaving her three children behind. She hoped to settle in Canada, work and eventually bring her family along. She was refused refugee status after a hearing in 2012, but is still hoping that decision will be overturned on humanitarian grounds.  She worked under the table as a cleaner in a hotel until the pandemic forced its closure. Solidarity Across Borders has been helping her pay her rent and buy groceries since that time.

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“We really love Canada and all we want is to have the possibility to live here in peace, and to have opportunities,” she said.

Jagdeep Singh, another protester, said she came to Canada from India more than 12 years ago and has been trying in vain to get permanent residency. She worked as a dishwasher in a restaurant until her husband was deported two years ago.

She and her 10-year-old son have been moving from place to place for the past two years, staying with friends, terrified they will be tracked down and deported.

When she and her son both contracted COVID-19 last November, she was afraid to go to a hospital even as her condition deteriorated. Finally, when she was so ill she needed oxygen, SSF volunteers persuaded her to go to emergency, promising she would not be turned over to police, she said.

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Singh is appealing a refusal for an exemption based on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

“I am beseeching the government to give us our papers, to regularize us and treat us like human beings,” she told the Montreal Gazette through a translator.

Another rally will be held May 16, starting with a march from Jarry Park to Trudeau’s Montreal office on Crémazie Blvd. E.  And an eight-day march to Parliament Hill for the cause will leave Montreal on July 18 and arrive in Ottawa July 25.

mlalonde@postmedia.com