Reality show filmed immigration raids, B.C. advocates say
CBC News Posted: Mar 14, 2013 10:04 AM PT Last Updated: Mar 14, 2013 8:43 PM PT Read 543
comments543
Video Content
Immigration raids on reality TV

Immigration activists in Vancouver are protesting the arrest of eight migrant workers who they say were picked up by border agents and filmed for a reality TV series during a raid on a construction site on Wednesday.

“Undocumented workers are illegal workers, illegal immigrants,” said Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, who represents Don Valley East. “Their first stop is the welfare office. They already know the address because they’ve been told back home where to go.”

‘Their first stop is the welfare office’: Bid to improve service access for illegal workers sparks furious Toronto council debate
Natalie Alcoba | Feb 22, 2013 4:04 AM ET | Last Updated: Feb 22, 2013 11:27 AM ET
More from Natalie Alcoba | @NPHallMonitor

(…)

A bid to ensure undocumented workers can access city services without fear of repercussions set off a passionate debate at city council on Thursday, with the son of an immigrant saying people who are in the country illegally are an “insult” to those who gained admittance through legal channels.

“Undocumented workers are illegal workers, illegal immigrants,” said Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, who represents Don Valley East. “Their first stop is the welfare office. They already know the address because they’ve been told back home where to go.”

Family living in Montreal fights deportation to Mexico
Mendez-Reyes family wants to defer immigration officials’ decision
CBC News Posted: Dec 27, 2012 4:29 PM ET Last Updated: Dec 27, 2012 8:51 PM ET

A family that has been living in Montreal for four years has learned it will be deported to Mexico on Jan. 19 despite efforts to stay.

Marisol Mendez said she’s terrified of returning to Mexico after settling in Montreal.

“We are a good family,” she said, sobbing. “We try to have a good family to give a good example.”

Arnisito Gaviola. (QMI Agency, files)

Company fined $12,000 in illegal worker bust 
JAMES TURNER, QMI Agency
First posted: Monday, July 02, 2012 04:39 PM EDT
Arnisito Gaviola. (QMI Agency, files)

WINNIPEG — A Manitoba company at the heart of a high-profile immigration debacle that led to the deportation of three hard-working Filipino men affectionately dubbed the “Three Amigos” pleaded guilty and fined $12,000 for breaking Canadian immigration-protection laws.

5896941 Manitoba Limited — operating as a Shell gas station in Thompson, Man. — pleaded guilty last week before provincial court Judge Tim Preston to counts of misrepresentation and employing illegal foreign workers under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.

Preston fined the company $12,000.

Photograph by: Andy Clark , Reuters

Vancouver lawyer representing accused in Tamil migrants case to argue charges as unconstitutional
By KATIE DeROSA, Times Colonist July 21, 2012

February 21: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper stands with Immigration Minister Jason Kenney (R) and Director of Operations for the Canadian Border Services Ivan Peterson on the stern of the refugee ship Ocean Lady in Delta, British Columbia February 21, 2011. The Ocean Lady was used by some 500 Tamil refugees to land on Canada’s west coast in 2010.
Photograph by: Andy Clark , Reuters

A Vancouver criminal lawyer representing one of the men accused of smuggling Tamil migrants aboard the Ocean Lady in 2009 plans to argue the charges are unconstitutional.

Peter Edelmann said Section 117 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, which criminalizes organizing, aiding or abetting undocumented persons to get into Canada, is so broad and vague it can apply to most legitimate refugees.

MONTREAL, QUE: SATURDAY MAY 26, 2012. — Protesters march on Jean Talon in Montreal opposing Bill C-31, the federal governments legislation changing rules governing immigration Saturday, May 26, 2012. (Peter McCabe / THE GAZETTE ) Photograph by: Peter Mccabe, THE GAZETTE

Immigration protest defies Bill 78
Angry over reforms to federal law
By SUE MONTGOMERY May 27, 2012

MONTREAL, QUE: SATURDAY MAY 26, 2012. — Protesters march on Rue Jean Talon in Montreal, opposing Bill C-31, the federal governments legislation changing rules governing immigration Saturday, May 26, 2012. (Peter McCabe / THE GAZETTE )
Photograph by: Peter Mccabe , THE GAZETTE

MONTREAL – They didn’t give their itinerary, they were definitely more than 50 and many wore masks.

(…)

The multicultural group waved banners, banged on pots and pans, and shouted slogans in French, English and Spanish against Bill C-31, which has come to be known as the Refugee Exclusion Act by critics.

The Protecting Canada’s Immigration Act, as it’s officially known, aims to deport so-called bogus refugees more quickly, clamp down on human smugglers and require certain visa holders to turn over biometric data.