"We should remember that until 1976, it was illegal for lesbians and gay men to immigrate to Canada,"...."If gays and lesbians have learned anything about our history, we should stand in solidarity with the people who are being targeted today."

The following is a series of up-to-date stories about the current situation in Occupied Palestine brought to you by the Electronic Intifada.

Misconceptions in the Immigration Debate
What Would Crazy Horse Do?

We are not a nation of immigrants. We might have been. We nearly
exterminated the entire population of indigenous peoples but in the end
we failed. The natives are still here despite our determined drive to
genocide. The tribes are still identifiable despite our determined
campaign to scatter and destroy their languages, cultures and religious
beliefs.

No legislation is much preferable to what is on offer in Congress. The future for immigrants rights will be determined not by election-year Congressional wrangling but by more bodies in the streets...The mass outpouring of protest over the Sensenbrenner bill has thus far prevented Congress from passing anti-immigrant legislation. We need to redouble our efforts to continue to build a movement that stands squarely for full and complete legalization of undocumented immigrants.

MAY 27: March for Immigrant Rights! STATUS FOR ALL! (Montreal, Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, Peterborough, Fredericton...)

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Across Canada, migrants, refugees and their allies will demonstrate against the deportation and detention of migrants and refugees, and for a full, inclusive, unconditional and ongoing regularization program, meaning STATUS FOR ALL!

NO WAR ON IRAN!

The S.T.A.T.U.S Coalition brings together community-based organizations in the Vancouver area belonging to movements and struggles of the people of the Global South (Asia, Africa, Central and South America, Middle East, the Caribbean region) and the struggles of such migrant communities in Canada...Today it is our duty to speak out against any potential foreign invasion of Iran...(C)ontrary to the argument put forward by the U.S in order to legitimize its illegal actions, US military action against Iran will not liberate the Iranian people from the current regime or improve the situation for human rights. Only an uprising of the Iranian people can produce genuine democracy within Iran.

Canadians have been proud of their country's role of world peacekeeper and as the beacon of peace and hope and refuge for us Americans who feel that our country's aggressive militarism endangers us and harms our reputations and souls. Now Canadians need to wake up to the fact that their new minority, disliked government is leading them down this same slippery slope to the fascistic militarism of their immediate neighbors to the south.

UN chastises Canada for human rights record

Geneva - A United Nations watchdog group has harshly criticized Canada for its failure to live up to its commitments under an international treaty that protects people's economic, social and cultural rights.

In a tough assessment, one of the committee's 18 independent experts noted that "some situations (in Canada) had actually got worse" since Canada's record was last scrutinized in 1998.

We are a group of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people of color who work in the LGBT movement. We are writing to you in response to Jasmyne Cannick's article "Gays First, Then Illegals", which ran in The Advocate, in which she, a black lesbian, argues that she cannot support the current battle for immigrant rights because LGBT people have not yet won the right to marry. We are writing to express our profound disagreement with her, and to offer alternative LGBT perspectives to the current immigration battles happening across the country.

(W)e need to recognise the sub-Saharan African and Latino workers who die attempting to open up the labour markets of the rich world for what they are: globalisation's unsung martyrs.