MONTRÉAL, Que. — With the detention of migrants making headlines south of the border, activists say more light needs to be shed on the mistreatment of migrants in Canada.
“I think people don’t know that these things happen here, too,” said Amy Darwish, a spokesperson for the group Solidarity Across Borders. “People are also held in very difficult conditions here with little access to health or support services. People are often isolated and separated from their loved ones.”
A group of protesters gathered in Laval on Monday in front of the site of a planned detention centre, which would hold migrants while they await their hearings to determine if they will be permitted into the country. The detention centre is to be built near the Laval penitentiary on Montée St-François, in an agricultural sector of the city.
“As much as Canada says it wants to eliminate the practice of detaining children, the truth is they are planning on building family rooms in the new prison. They are planning on building a playground with a six-foot fence,” Darwish said. “As long as they continue to detain families, they are going to continue to detain migrant children, too.”
The demonstrators have vowed to block the construction of the detention centre.
We believe that nobody should be imprisoned for the crime or the situation of not having the correct papers.”
“We believe that nobody should be imprisoned for the crime or the situation of not having the correct papers,” said May Chiu, a spokesperson for Association des juristes progressistes. “We don’t think there should be one set of rights for citizens and another set of rights for non-citizens, and the fact is that when you’re a citizen, the only way you can be deprived of your right of liberty is when you have committed a crime.”
Chiu’s group is one of 70 that signed a statement vowing to work against the construction of the facility. This is not the first time demonstrators have raised their opposition to the centre. In February, about 100 people marched in the St-Henri neighbourhood of Montreal against the facility. In recent months, a group of anarchists vandalized the offices of some private contractors who have won bids to help build the establishment.
With the contract for the construction already awarded, Darwish called on the firm that won the bid — Val-David-based Construction Tisseur Inc. — to withdraw because it will be profiting from depriving people of their basic rights and freedoms.
“Construction can begin any day. We imagine that will step up soon and so will our resistance,” Darwish said.
Ottawa has pledged to create a “ fairer and more humane immigration detention system ” after the Canadian Red Cross criticized conditions at federal immigration detention centres.
The Liberal government plans to spend about $138 million to rebuild holding centres in Laval and British Columbia, which means fewer immigration detainees will have to be held in provincial correctional facilities.
The money will also be spent to enhance alternatives to detention, to “ensure that detention is truly a last resort,” said Ralph Goodale, Canada’s public safety minister.
About 450 to 500 individuals are detained under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act at any given time. Some are detained pending deportation, while others are deemed a flight risk, pose a security risk or don’t have proper identification.
In 2014, a Red Cross investigation found numerous shortcomings at Canadian facilities for immigrant detainees, including triple bunked cells, lack of support for detained children and inadequate mental health care.
The protesters said that despite nice words about the new facilities by the federal government, the facilities shouldn’t be built at all.
“It doesn’t matter how beautiful the structure is — a prison is a prison,” Chiu said.
The Canada Border Services Agency declined a Montreal Gazette request to comment on the subject. Construction Tisseur Inc. could not be reached for comment on Monday.
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2019
