Demonstrators Hit Up Toronto MP Offices Demanding Action Against Community Organizer’s Deportation

No One Is Illegal – Toronto
Media Advisory
April 5, 2018
www.nooneisillegal.org

Media Contact: Mary Foster, Solidarity Across Borders (Montréal), 514-222-0205; M. Lee, No One Is Illegal-Toronto, 647-403-2239

Demonstrators Hit Up Toronto MP Offices Demanding Action Against Community Organizer’s Deportation

Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto band together to stop the deportation of undocumented community organizer.

Toronto — Migrant justice activists and local area residents will be demonstrating outside the MP offices of Arif Virani, Cynthia Freeland and Bill Morneau on April 5th to demand a stop to the scheduled deportation of Lucy Francineth Granados.

Lucy, a community organizer with the Non Status Women’s Collective and ATTAP (the Temporary Workers Association) in Montréal, was brutally arrested in late March and since then has been held in jail and is facing deportation on April 13th. A 9-year resident of Montréal, Lucy is well-known in her community for organizing for migrant justice and workers rights. Making constant sacrifices in the face of her precarity as an undocumented migrant, Lucy has worked tirelessly to make Montréal a better city for all. Her scheduled deportation comes just as her application for permanent residence is due to be evaluated. Held in a windowless cell, Lucy’s physical and mental health has deteriorated and she has been rushed to emergency medical services twice. Multiple actions demanding the stop to her deportation have occurred and continue as her community rallies around her, calling for the government to #LetLucyStay.

WHAT: Roving Rally for Lucy

WHERE: 1596 Bloor Street West (1:00pm); 344 Bloor street West (1:30pm); 430 Parliament Street (2:00pm)

WHEN: 1:00pm; 1:30pm; 2:00pm, Thursday, April 5, 2018

WHO: Migrant justice organizers, community members, No One Is Illegal – Toronto

VISUALS: Masked community members holding banners and signs inside MP offices

BACKGROUND

At 6am on March 20th, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) entered the home of Lucy Francineth Granados, a member of the Non Status Women’s Collective and ATTAP (Temporary Workers Association) and violently arrested her, injuring her arm. Since her arrest she has been detained in a windowless cell at the Laval Immigration Detention Centre pending deportation.

Lucy is the sole financial support for her three children. They live in Guatemala with their grandmother and depend entirely on the remittances sent by their mother for all their basic needs (food, shelter, school fees, etc.). If Lucy were deported, her children would immediately lose their sole source of financial support.

After the death of her husband and being threatened by a local gang, Lucy traveled alone through Mexico on the infamous La Bestia train to the US and later to Canada. She has lived in Montréal for 9 years.

Last summer she filed a humanitarian application for permanent residence in an attempt to regularize her status. In January, a CBSA officer informed her lawyer that Lucy’s file would not be studied unless she turned herself in to face deportation. The CBSA officer illegally misrepresented the situation. Neither Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) nor CBSA have responded to her lawyer’s demand that the situation be clarified.

According to IRCC, her file is being evaluated, and a response could be expected at any time, should she be allowed to remain in Canada. Unless Minister of Public Safety Ralph Goodale intervenes to suspend the deportation, Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen expedites processing of her file, or the City of Montréal takes its responsibility and commitment as a self-proclaimed “Sanctuary City” seriously, Lucy will likely be deported before her file is determined.

Beginning on April 3, mothers across Montréal have been showing their support for Lucy by sitting-in outside of the CBSA offices in Montréal (1010 St. Antoine O) in a “Mothers for Lucy” Action.

Lucy is our friend, neighbour, and community organizer. We demand that the government #LetLucyStay, end all deportations and detentions, and grant full status for all.
More information & further updates: https://bit.ly/2GrwsZk