Resisting the Prison Industrial Complex: Immigration Detentions & Migrant Detainees
Channel: Rhetorical Saboteur
Date: 2013-11-02

Oct 23rd 2013 - Please join us for a "Teach In" to discuss the issues surrounding the immigration detainee's strike at C.E.C.C. There will be a panel presentation and then a larger discussion to determine how we can better support detainees. This discussion will be framed within the larger context of resisting the Prison Industrial Complex.

"Every year thousands of refugee claimants, migrant workers or temporary residents on family, visit and study visas are denied permit renewals or permanent residency in Canada. These migrants have to make the difficult decision of choosing to return to a place where they may not be able to work, live, or be safe, or instead to stay in Canada without papers, and thus without rights and benefits. Many choose to stay....According to the group No One Is Illegal-Toronto, "Between 2004 and 2011, 82,000 people were locked up in immigration detention. At least another 13,000 have been imprisoned since 2011. Just this year 289 of the detainees were children, many of them under the age of 10." 

"On September 17, immigration detainees launched a strike over detention conditions at the Central East Correctional Centre in Lindsay, Ontario. Due to the forthcoming closure of the Toronto West Detention Centre, 191 immigration detainees were relocated to the maximum-security facility known colloquially as the "Lindsay Superjail". 

Part of the detainees protest action has included a hunger strike. 

The demands of the striking immigration detainees include: "Better access to medical care and social workers, cheaper phone calls and access to international calling cards (many have family overseas), access to better food, like the food on the non-immigration ranges, an end to constant lockdowns, keep the improved canteen program going, better access to legal aid and legal services, and granting of specific requests to move individuals to facilities nearer to their families, legal resources, and social services."

For more information go to:http://endimmigrationdetention.wordpress.com/ 

This 'teach in will be part of a larger speakers series on Resisting the Prison Industrial Complex. 

Mina Ramos, NOII Toronto:

Mina Ramos is an active organizer with the migrant justice group Fuerza Puwersa based out of Guelph. She has been involved in migrant justice organizing for the past 4 years and doesn't see an end in sight any time soon! She has been involved in co-organizing healthfairs/clinics alongside migrant workers, anti-deportation campaigns as well as educational workshops.