• About
  • Join/Donate
  • Contact
Tuesday, January 19, 2021
No Result
View All Result
The Brief
NB MEDIA CO-OP
Share a story
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Gender
  • Politics
  • Arts & Culture
  • Videos
  • COVID-19
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Gender
  • Politics
  • Arts & Culture
  • Videos
  • COVID-19
No Result
View All Result
NB MEDIA CO-OP
No Result
View All Result
Home *Opinion*

Let Lucy Stay

by Gül Çaliskan
April 11, 2018
3 min read

Lights for Lucy vigil held at Fredericton City Hall on April 10, 2018. Photo by Jared Durelle.

Update: On April 13, 2018, Lucy Granados was deported from Canada to Guatemala. Lucy’s supporters in Canada are organizing for her return to Canada. 

This speech was delivered by Gül Çaliskan, an organizer with No One Is Illegal Fredericton and a professor of sociology at St. Thomas University, at the Lights for Lucy vigil held at Fredericton City Hall on April 10. 

Can we chant for Lucy? Let Lucy Stay!

We are here today because we dream of a better world—a world without borders, without the systems that force people to leave their homes.

A world where there is justice and dignity for migrants; a world where indigenous peoples have self-determination.

A world where those wishing to return to places they have left can do so.

It is a world where the state does not separate people into geographic territories.

This world might seem so far away.

But I can see it. Can’t you? We have no choice but to continue to dream that world.

Because, this world we envision puts a mirror for us to see this land.

Half a million of our friends, neighbors, co-workers, peers, and community members are undocumented in this land that we presently call Canada.

Even now, tens of thousands of refugees await decisions on their cases.

Nearly a hundred thousand migrant workers work in dangerous and difficult conditions.

Hundreds of people face indefinite periods of detention.

Nearly 100,000 migrants in Canada have been jailed without charge. Migrants are the only population of people in Canada who can be jailed on administrative grounds, without ever being charged with a specific criminal offense. That punishment is inflicted on up to 807 children per year.

Segregation is a legally recognized form of torture, and it must end.

In 2017, over 20,000 people entered Canada overland, escaping Trump’s America. They have access to few services, they lack full status, and they face possible deportation.

In the face of these challenges, communities across Canada are fighting back, as they envision the possibility of another world.

In dozens of places across the country, directly affected people and organizers are struggling for dignity.

The non-status women are organizing in Montreal.

We struggle to stop individual deportations (Lucy and Abdoul are only two of them).

Caregivers fight to stop the upcoming program closure that might deny status to thousands of workers.

Like many communities in cities across the country, in our city we are working to nurture a culture of commitment to reducing barriers and to accessing services for migrants who have precarious status or no immigration status.

We dream that future world, and so we demand full access to dignity, rights, and services for all people, regardless of immigration status, with a clear and consistent anti-colonial perspective. That commitment takes us a few steps closer to the world we dream of.

We will continue to hold that vision that feels so far away, yet so near.

Today, we say LET LUCY STAY.

Every day, we will demand, NO MORE DETENTIONS. STATUS FOR ALL, STATUS NOW!

Gül Çaliskan is a member of No One is Illegal in Fredericton.

Tags: asylumcaregiversCity of FrederictonFrederictonGül ÇalışkanimmigrationLet Lucy Staymigrantmigrant justicerefugeeslider
ShareTweetSend

Related Posts

Rent hikes and stagnant incomes leave New Brunswickers without housing this COVID winter
*Opinion*

Rent hikes and stagnant incomes leave New Brunswickers without housing this COVID winter

January 12, 2021

Imagine the shock if we were to wake to an overnight 50 per cent increase in fuel prices, making it...

Fredericton residents hope to keep the Out of the Cold Shelter open
Economy

Fredericton residents hope to keep the Out of the Cold Shelter open

November 23, 2020

Fredericton residents feel confident that they have successfully organized to keep the Out of the Cold Shelter, also known as...

Newcomers talk systemic racism to mark National Week of Francophone Immigration in Fredericton
Arts & Culture

Newcomers talk systemic racism to mark National Week of Francophone Immigration in Fredericton

November 11, 2020

With hundreds of Francophones wanting to make Fredericton their home, organizers chose to discuss systemic racism at this year’s event...

“We are here to protect our ancestors”: Treaty people come together in face of crisis
Indigenous

“We are here to protect our ancestors”: Treaty people come together in face of crisis

November 3, 2020

In October, treaty people on the unceded territories of the Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik organized a series of actions in defence...

Load More

Recommended

Delivering community power: Postal workers pitching solutions to climate change

4 years ago

Postal Workers: Stop cutting public postal service and jobs

10 years ago
Activist facing contempt for offering assistance to low-income people

Activist facing contempt for offering assistance to low-income people

12 months ago
acla

Labour Day reminder: Harper’s EI changes hit immigrants hardest

8 years ago
NB Media Co-op

© 2019 NB Media Co-op. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Join/Donate
  • Contact
  • Share a Story
  • Calendar
  • Archives

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • About
  • Join/Donate
  • Contact
  • Share a Story
  • COVID-19
  • Videos
  • New Brunswick
  • Canada
  • World
  • Arts & Culture
  • Environment
  • Indigenous
  • Labour
  • Politics
  • Rural

© 2019 NB Media Co-op. All rights reserved.

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In