Some countries manage to create the
illusion of being a ”nice” country and keep the nasty side in
low profile. Canada is one of those countries, the great outdoors and
land of opportunity, but the same shit goes on there as else where in
the capitalist world. Some months ago there was the student riots,
which once again proved that under capitalism, anger and discontent
are always simmering under the surface, ready to explode. More
recently the way the Canadian government treats immigrants has been
leaking out. In Canada the authorities can hold immigrants
indefinitely in detention, and do.
According to figures released by
the organisation No One is Illegal, between 2004 and 2011, the
Canadian authorities locked up, 82,000 people in immigration
detention, and since 2011, at least another 25,000 people have been
detained. Of those detained in 2012, a staggering 289 were children,
some under the age of ten. Approximately 33% of immigration detainees
are held in maximum-security provincial prisons. Of course this is
capitalism and immigration detention centres are big business, and in
Canada that business is worth $50 million, and is run in partnership
with private companies. Big international vultures like G4S and
Corbel Management have their greedy hands in the pot. Recent figures
show that in Toronto alone, these two companies, between 2004 and
2008, were paid $19 million of tax payers money to lock up
immigrants.
At present Canada accepts less
than a quarter of all refugee claimants, and with recent legislation,
immigrants are classed as “non-status people” a precarious
position to be in as they are targeted in raids and detentions. To
add to the difficulties of of those detained, approximately 200
immigration detainees have recently been moved from prisons in the
Greater Toronto Area and sent to a maximum-security prison in
Lindsay, Ontario. This has created greater difficulties for the
detainees who have friends and families and adds to their desperation
and isolation. Due to under staffing these immigrants now face
lockdowns and in some cases are unable to leaver their cells for 18
hours a day.
However, as always, people who are
ill treated eventually try to hit back in self defence and since
September 18, many detainees are on hunger strike. They are calling
for better access to medical care, better food, adequate legal aid
and services, cheaper phone calls, and an end to the persistent
lockdowns.
Canada, just another capitalist
country, knee deep in fire tinder, waiting for the spark.
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