Ottawa Sanctuary City Network Open meeting

The Ottawa Sanctuary City Network invites you to come to our Open Meeting. The purpose of this meeting is for people who wish to volunteer and get involved can "plug in" and learn about the network and its three current priorities: 1) Political advocacy, 2) Access to Education and 3) Data Collection & Research

Join us to see how you can contribute to the campaign's efforts! Volunteers will be invited to join each group as well as help develop and implement a plan of action to make Ottawa a Sanctuary City!

Location: 219 Argyle Ave, Room 113 (straight ahead as you enter the main door) (map link here)
Time: 6pm to 7:30 pm
Date: Tuesday, March 22nd, 2016.

Check out the event on Facebook.

NOII New Member Orientation

Location: 

Room 36 (3rd floor)

Dalhousie Community Centre 

775 Somerset Street West (Google Map here)

Date: Wednesday September 23, 2015

Time: 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

**L'événement se tiendra en anglais, mais contactez-nous si vous êtes francophones et aimeriez participer plus activement en français, nous organiseront une introduction séparée -- noiiottawa@gmail.com**

Interested in joining No One Is Illegal (NOII) Ottawa? 

Come to a NOII Orientation!

No One Is Illegal is a grassroots group of migrants and allies that advocates and fights for the dignity and self determination of immigrants and refugees, as well as those living without status. We welcome people who are interested in organizing around migrant justice issues, such as refugee rights, family reunification, temporary workers, status for all, sanctuary city, indigenous solidarity, and against detentions, deportations, immigration raids, and border controls.

Orientation will include introduction to No One Is Illegal, an overview of the immigration system, and upcoming actions and events. 

For more information about NOII principles/policies and about being a member, please read this: 

http://noii-ottawa.blogspot.ca/2013/06/updated-noii-membership-policybasis-of.html

Pop-Up Fundraiser for No One Is Illegal - Ottawa

Join us for tasty food and great music in Hintonburg with Bread By Us, Top Shelf Preserves and NOII-Ottawa!

Location: 1065 Wellington St. West
Date/Time: Sunday, September 13 @ 5 pm to 10 pm

Pizza and other goodies provided by Bread By Us and Top Shelf Preserves throughout the evening accompanied by local beer, wine and in house cocktails.

Awesome local artists include:
- Rita Carter
- Denis Kashi
- Lucila Al Mar

Entrance is 5$ to 10$ sliding scale at the door. Funds raised will go to No One Is Illegal-Ottawa to contribute towards anti-deportation campaigns and casework costs.

Bread By Us is an accessible venue.

We visited Naqvi, will you call him?

On November 18th 2014, we sent a letter to Ontario Minister responsible for prisons Yasir Naqvi demanding that he cut all ties with CBSA and stop collaborating in the indefinite, cruel and unjust detention of migrants in Ontario's maximum security prisons. The Minister, who is also the Ontario Liberal House Leader, has yet to reply and Ontario continues to profit from Harper's anti-immigrant laws. Immigration detentions must end.

So on March 16, 2015 representatives from the End Immigration Detention Network, No One Is Illegal Ottawa, and the Parent-Child Coalition for Justice visited Minister Naqvi and demanded that he act now.

Add your voice to ours. Take action with us!

* SIGN THIS PETITION: https://www.change.org/p/harper-end-indefinite-immigration-detention

* WRITE/CALL/TWEET AT YASIR NAQVI: Demand that the he end the imprisonment of migrants in Ontario prisons without trial or charge.

Tweet: https://twitter.com/yasir_naqvi
Call: 416-325-0408, 416-325-7754, or 613-722-6414
Write: ynaqvi.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org

SOME FACTS:

- Immigration detention is imprisonment without trial or charges.

- Of the 9,932 detentions that took place in 2013, 2,434 detentions took place in Ontario's maximum security prisons. At any given time, between 520 and 700 people are in immigration detention in Canada. About 40 per cent of them are in Ontario provincial jails.

- In fiscal 2013-2014, the Feds paid Ontario more than $21 million for jail space for immigration detainees.

- The release rate at the monthly detention review hearing where continued imprisonment of immigrants facing deportations in Central Region (Ontario, minus Ottawa and Kingston) is 9%. Its 25.5% in the rest of the country.

- Detainees in Ontario jails spend an average of 40 days in custody – twice the 20-day average for immigration detainees in general. Some, of course, are in jail for 8-10 years. Detainees in Lindsay stay an average of 82 days there (allowing for early release, that’s equivalent to a four-month jail sentence for someone in the criminal justice system).

IMMIGRATION DETENTION
** Is not a provincial matter
** Is imprisonment without an end in sight
** Lacks due process
** Separates families
** Kills

Our letter to Naqvi: http://endimmigrationdetention.com/2014/11/18/our-letter-to-provincial-corrections-minister-yasir-naqvi/
For more information:
www.endimmigrationdetention.com
https://www.facebook.com/endimmigrationdetention

*** If you see a photo of you or your child and want it taken down, please don't hesitate to ask me! I promptly will! ***

2014: A year in review

No One is Illegal Ottawa is a group of im/migrants and allies guided by anti-oppression principles that advocates and fights for the dignity and self determination of all im/migrants regardless of status. This year we kicked off the Solidarity City campaign to ensure that city and social services in the city are open to all migrants regardless of status. 

We launched the End Immigration Detention (EIDN) campaign in Ottawa to support the activities of the broader national campaign. The EIDN campaign aims to educate the public around migrant detention and to seek an end to the indefinite detention of migrant families and children. 

In June, we collaborated with migrant justice organizers to support actions and panels on migrant detention for the ICOPA conference, and in August we participated in the migration movement assembly during the People's Social Forum, in Ottawa. 

On Nov. 7 last year, we collaborated with Octopus Books for the Ottawa launch of EIDN member Tings Chak's book on migrant detention, "Undocumented: The architecture of migrant detention". We have also continued to support migrant families in Ottawa facing deportation; seeking sanctuary, and offering financial, legal and emotional support. We hope to continue our direct action,  campaign organizing, and support work in the next year. Come join us!

End Immigration Detention Rally

CHALLENGE NAQVI TO END IMMIGRATION DETENTION IN ONTARIO JAILS!

SUPPORT MIGRANTS WHO ARE SEPERATED FROM THEIR FAMILIES AND CHILDREN!

Join the End Immigration Detention Network, Parent-Child Coalition for Justice and the Raging Grannies for the families in solidarity with immigration detainees rally on unceded and unsurrendered Algonquin Territory.

WHEN: 9:00am on Monday, March 16 2015
WHERE: Office of Yasir Naqvi, MPP for Ottawa Centre and Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services
109 Catherine Street

THE ACTION
We will rally outside MPP/Minister of Community Safety and Corrections Yasir Naqvi’s office. A delegation will then deliver children's books about incarceration and migrant justice to Minister Naqvi to share with his kids, for all those children denied access to their own families due to detention and deportation.

On November 18th 2014, the End Immigration Detention Network sent a letter to Minister Naqvi requesting that he cut all ties with CBSA and stop collaborating in the indefinite, cruel and unjust detention of migrants in Ontario detention centres. The minister has yet to reply and continues to perpetuate this injustice. Immigration detentions must end.

IMMIGRATION DETENTION
** Is not a provincial matter
** Is imprisonment without an end in sight
** Lacks due process
** Separates families
** Kills

For more information:
www.endimmigrationdetention.com
https://www.facebook.com/endimmigrationdetention

Ottawa launch of End Immigration Detention campaign

Migrants in a maximum security prison in Lindsay Ontario have been on strike since September 17, 2013. They have refused to enter their cells, boycotted their detention reviews and have been on hunger strike - 2 of them for over 60 days. Striking detainees have been deported, locked up in segregation, denied medical services and transferred to other prisons. Inspired by their actions, migrant justice organizers in solidarity have formed the End Immigration Detention Network.

More info on the campaign website: http://endimmigrationdetention.com/.

NOII - Ottawa will be having an initial planning meeting open to all interested in organizing around ending migrant detention and supporting migrants currently in detention.

The meeting is scheduled for January 22 at 6.30pm at the Jack Purcell Centre, Room 101.

More info to come soon...