Detalles del evento

March starts at Nathan Phillips Square, ends in Cultural Festival at Alexandra Park at 7pm.
Canada is shutting out Refugees and Families! On May Day 2012 march for Status for All!

For the last six years, No One Is Illegal - Toronto has coordinated a May Day of Action to celebrate and invigorate migrant justice struggles. This year dozens of groups across the City are collaborating in a show of solidarity and strength to mark the May Day of Action. On May 1st, 2012 No One Is Illegal - Toronto will take the streets to push back against the refugee exclusion act (Bill C-31), ensure family reunification in the face of cuts to permanent immigration for parents and grandparents, and support decolonization struggles on Turtle Island. JOIN US!

The refugee exclusion act or Bill C-31 effectively ends what little *permanent* protection existed in Canada’s refugee protection system. The brutal machinery of detention and deportation is being expanded with mandatory jail sentences for many asylum seekers. A racist, disableist, two-tiered system is being built where refugees get fewer rights based on their nationality. Since February, Roma, Latin American, Immigrant and Queer communities have taken actions to fight the Refugee Exclusion Act and on May Day 2012 we will take to the streets!

With the heroically named Parent and Grandparent Super Visa coming into effect, Kenney and Harper have demonstrated that they hate your grandparents. The "Super Visa" allows temporary reunification to families in Canada (only to those families, of course, that can afford to pay exorbitant funds for private healthcare) while slamming the door shut on permanent reunification for families by placing a moratorium on family sponsorships. While this so-called moratorium is until 2014, Kenney has just started consultations to *limit* the program permanently. Harper and Kenney are taking the destructive agenda of the temporary migrant workers program and forcing it in on to the family sponsorship and refugee determination process. We must resist.

Pipelines, tankers, mines and housing projects are being forced onto the homelands of Indigenous nations. Indigenous communities are being locked up in prisons, children thrown into state custody. Yet land defenders across Turtle Island continue to struggle and resist. From KI, to Grassy Narrows, to Six Nations - migrant justice struggles are joining with Indigenous struggles for self-determination. This May Day 2012, we honor ongoing decolonization struggles and commit to continuing our support.

In the face of austerity, climate destruction, criminalization, colonial and capitalist wars here and across the world that push people out of their homes, we fight for status for all. Status for All is the struggle for self-determination, just livelihood, housing, food, education, healthcare, childcare, shelter, justice and dignity for all people, paid or unpaid, with or without immigration status.

This May Day 2012, on international workers' day, the rally begins at 4pm at City Hall. Community organizations are marching to respect Indigenous sovereignty, to insist that no one is illegal, for international workers solidarity, to defend and expand public services, to stop prison expansion and corporate bail-outs, to end imperialist wars and aggression, to build people’s power, and to move beyond capitalism.

Organizations, networks and coalitions are requested to write their own call for why they are marching on this day. This is ours.

*Free Meal (provided by Food Not Bombs)
*ASL-English at the Rally and 7pm performances
*Closest accessible transit station is Queen Station. There will be accessible transit during the march.

The rally, march & cultural festival from 4pm to 9pm are being coordinated by Occupy Toronto, May 1st Movement and No One Is Illegal - Toronto.

Media Sponsor: rabble.ca

The rally and march is endorsed & supported by Afghans for Peace, CAMP Sis, Canadian Auto Workers Union, Casa Salvador Allende, Centre for Social Justice, Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid, Committee for the Defence of the Iranian Peoples Rights (Canada Organization), Committee of Progressive Pakistani-Canadians, Common Cause Toronto, Communist Party of Canada, DAMN, Greater Toronto Workers' Assembly, Health for All, International Council of Latin American and Caribbean Women in Canada, International Federation of Iranian Refugees, Iraqi Federation of Refugees in Canada, International League of People's Struggles Canada, International Socialists, Justice for Migrant Workers, Latin American and Caribbean Solidarity Network, Law Union of Ontario, Maggie's: Toronto Sex Workers Action Project, Metro Toronto Labour Council, Mining Injustice Solidarity Network, Movement Defence Committee, Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, Ontario Federation of Labour, OPIRG Toronto, OPIRG York, ProtestBarrick, Rhythms of Resistance, Socialist Project, Stop the Cuts, Toronto Bolivia Solidarity, Toronto New Socialists, Toronto Socialist Action, Trans Film Screenings, Tudeh Party of Iran - Canada Organization, Socialist Party of Ontario, United May Day Committee, Unity Against Unemployment in Iraq, Women's Coordinating Committee for a Free Wallmapu [Toronto], Workers Action Centre, Workers Communist Party of Iran and more.

JOIN MAY DAY!

- Call-In Sick. Take the day off and do something you love. Organize your own action if you like. And at 4pm come to the rally and march.

- Organize a contingent: bring a group of people from your class, organization, neighbourhood, or union local to this demonstration, bring your demands, banners, flags and signs.

- Help fund a bus, food, transit tokens, ASL, and materials for the day. If you or your organization or union local can make donations of money or in-kind, please help us make this day as participatory and accessible as possible. Cheques can be made to No One Is Illegal and mailed to 260 Queen Street West, PO Box 60006, Toronto, ON M5V 1Z8. Please put May Day in the memo line and email may1toronto2012@gmail.com to let us know.

- Build the movement: add your organization to the list of endorsers for this day of action. Email may1toronto2012@gmail.com

- Get the word out. Call, text, and email your friends. Come to one of the postering days. Email us at may1toronto2012@gmail.com if you need posters or flyers. Share one of the facebook events, or better yet, start your own! Make sure to tag everything, including pictures and videos after, with the hashtag #May1TO