Fraser Health - Access without Fear!

Fraser Health is the Health Authority that serves the region from Boston Bar in the Fraser Canyon all the way down the Fraser River Valley to the Vancouver suburbs of Burnaby and Delta.

Update:
Fraser Health has taken the following positive steps to respond to address some of the problems with their policies:

1. Fraser Health’s CEO has personally looked into the matter.
2. Fraser Health states it has made changes to internal processes, preventing the finance department from sharing information with immigration officials, and committing to update their policies to remove any reference to the Canada Border Services Agency
3. Fraser Health publicly states it has made these changes on social media and through email.

Community members are working with Fraser Health to hold it accountable to its commitments and to ensure that it effectively addresses patient’s needs. A strong coalition of affected communities and advocates agree that there are five important changes that need to be made to Fraser Health's policies and guidelines:

1. Changing all policies so that Fraser Health staff protects patient confidentiality and does not share information with the Canada Border Services Agency.
2. Ensuring that health care, including booked services, are accessible for all, regardless of immigration status.
3. Training all relevant Fraser Health staff on these changes in policy, and accountability and complaint mechanisms.
4. Ensuring that patients are not listed as victims of trafficking without their consent.
5. Establishing urgent and concrete timelines for the implementation of these policies.

A health care worker's priority should be the patient's health. Hospitals are not border checkpoints! We will report back on updates as they become available.


In a 22 month period between January 1, 2014 to October 7, 2015, Fraser Health staff made 558 referrals to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). As revealed in Freedom of Information requests, Fraser Health policy dictates that physicians, nurses and social workers should work with the financial department to arrange for deportations. A health care worker's priority should be the patient's health. Hospitals are not border checkpoints! Health care is a basic human right. Everyone should have dignified access to health care. Patients should be able to receive the care that they need without emotional stress and fear of deportation, debt and death. Patient confidentiality and "do no harm" are fundamental principles that should guide all aspects of our health care system. These principles are violated when Fraser Health shares patient information with the CBSA. Patients should not have to deal with daily questions from their social worker about their immigration status. They should not be waking up from a coma to see CBSA officers at the foot of their bed. Patients should not have to choose to give birth in their bedrooms for fear of accessing the health care system. These are the results of Fraser Health's negligent policies. Fear of accessing services can and has resulted in individuals suffering from preventable disease, injury, and death. In other cases, catchment areas like Vancouver Coastal Health, who do not share information with CBSA, bear the burden of providing care for vulnerable and diverse populations that cannot find comparable services within Fraser Health. Fraser Health also appears to have made arrangements for air ambulances and airline medical escorts to assist with deportations, a process that costs thousands of dollars. On International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, please join us for a vigil, in front of Fraser Health Authority Offices, in honour of patients who have been detained or deported due to Fraser Health's collaboration with CBSA. The vigil will be on March 21st at 5 pm. Details about the event can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/events/244240372578008/ You can also write tell Fraser Health's] Board of Directors and important Senior Leaders at Fraser Health that these policies are unacceptable, are putting lives at risk, and need to be changed here: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/fraser-health-access-without-fear

Sanctuary Health Community Forum - Access to Health Care Without Fear Tuesday February 23 from 7-9 pm

Sanctuary Health Community Forum - Access to Health Care Without Fear Tuesday February 23 from 7-9 pm

https://www.facebook.com/events/1505602403079575/

Sanctuary Health Community Forum-Access to Health Care Without Fear
Tuesday February 23rd 7-9 pm
Broadway Youth Resource Centre, 2455 Fraser St, Vancouver, Unceded Coast Salish Territories

Invite to friends and community members!

Hospitals should not be border check-points! Join us for a Community Forum on the topic Access to Services without Fear.

In light of information we have received that indicates that Fraser Health has been releasing patient information to CBSA - we would like to bring our friends and allies together to strategize on how to pressure health authorities to end their collaboration with CBSA and ensure access to health care without fear.

At the meeting we will:
1) Go through the information released through our Freedom of infomration request to FHA
2) Ask you to share your experiences accessing health care for individuals with precarious status. What are your concerns? Have you had interactions with CBSA in this context?
2) Discuss a strategy for promoting awareness of this issue and putting pressure on the Health Authorities to change their practices to ensure access to health care without fear.

More information on Fraser health's collaboration with CBSA see this article:
http://www.straight.com/news/593441/metro-vancouver-hospitals-refer-hundreds-immigration-cases-border-police

Sanctuary City Movement Builds Migrant Justice with Solidarity

Check out this analysis of the Sanctuary City movement in Toronto and Vancouver from teleSUR:

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/analysis/Sanctuary-City-Movement-Builds-Migrant-Justice-with-Solidarity--20150320-0004.html

New West Coast LEAF position paper

West Coast LEAF released a thorough position paper on the need for a Sanctuary City policy in Vancouver and how to successfully implement it. You can read it here:

 http://www.westcoastleaf.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/WCL-Position-Paper-Sanctuary-City.pdf.

Transportation not Deportation Campaign Update

Sanctuary Health is a signatory to Transportation not Deportation, a recently-launched community campaign calling for an immediate end to Translink and Transit police collaboration with Canada Border Services Agency.

If you are interested in giving your input on the campaign, we are hosting a community meeting on January 28^th from 6:00 PM to 8 PM at the YWCA on 733 Beatty Street. At the meeting, we hope to share experiences and develop ideas, strategies and solutions on how we can collectively reach our goals. For more information about the event, you can see the Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/419426174876342/.

Currently, as part of this campaign we have two requests:

1) That your organization endorse our five demands.
http://transportationnotdeportation.wordpress.com/demands/

2) That you individually please sign this petition and circulate it to your networks. We are aiming to reach thousands of signatures to present directly to officials:
https://www.change.org/p/translink-and-transit-police-stop-turning-public-transit-into-a-border-checkpoint

Transportation not Deportation is a community campaign calling for an immediate end to Translink and Transit Police collaboration with Canada Border Services Agency. This campaign was launched this past year when it was revealed that Mexican migrant Lucia Vega Jiménez, who committed suicide in a detention centre, was handed over to CBSA by Transit police. Turns out, Transit Police reported 328 people to Canada Border Services Agency in 2013, one in five of whom faced a subsequent immigration investigation including deportation.

You can read more here on Transit Police and CBSA collaboration:
http://transportationnotdeportation.wordpress.com/key-facts/

Over the past few months, we have been busy researching the collaboration between CBSA and Transit Police, have hosted community meetings and actions, and been in direct communication with TransLink to pressure them to stop collaborating with CBSA. We are hopeful that with community pressure we can win some tangible victories, as even police agencies in the U.S. are refusing to enforce federal immigration laws.

We hope you will join us in pushing this critical issue forward.

Sanctuary Health in the Vancouver Sun

Representatives of Sanctuary Health have been in the Vancouver Sun twice in recent weeks:

Injured migrants fear being reported to CBSA by hospitals (December 17, 2014) 

A report on how people without legal status in Canada are increasingly afraid to go to hospitals for fear of being reported to the Canada Border Services Agency.

Border Services ramping up arrests, advocates say (December 11, 2014) 

Comments from community groups including Sanctuary Health on the rise of arrests from Border Services.

Transportation not Deportation!

Transportation not Deportation!
December 14^th, 4 PM, Main Street Skytrain Station

https://www.facebook.com/events/793591157350925/

Calling for access to transportation without fear! Stop transit police collaboration with CBSA!

This vigil marks the one-year anniversary of Lucia Vega Jiménez's detention. Please join us at Main Street Skytrain Station where Lucia was first stopped because she did not have fare.

¡Acceso al transporte público sin miedo! ¡Alto a la colaboración de la policía de tránsito con CBSA!

Esta vigilia marca el primer aniversario de la detención de Lucía Vega Jiménez. Por favor, únanse a nosotros en la estación de Main, donde Lucía fue inicialmente detenida al no poseer su boleto de pago.

MORE INFO/MÁS INFORMACIÓN:

 
Every day in the Greater Vancouver area, at various skytrain stations and bus stops, transit police racially profile migrants. In total, three hundred and twenty eight people were reported to Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) by Transit Police last year, one in five of whom faced a subsequent immigration investigation, which suggests that the other four were simply racially profiled.

One of these people was Lucia Vega Jiménez, who later committed suicide in a detention center. At the coroner's inquest into her death, a transit police officer testified that he turned Lucia over to CBSA, in part, because Lucia had an accent and that he believed “she wasn’t originally from Canada.”

Rather than regret this trend, a Translink press release brags about how "Transit Police have a strong relationship with CBSA and annually investigate a significant number of over-stays and other immigration violations in partnership with CBSA." Transit Police’s own report similarly notes that “Transit Police represented a significant proportion of the Police Agency referrals to the CBSA offices.”

Public transportation is increasingly militarized and privatized, disproportionately impacting racialized, Indigenous, poor, and undocumented communities. Bus riders face the humiliation of being singled out and berated, as well as the threat of violence. Vancouver's Transit police are the only armed transit police force in the country, with an annual budget of $31 million that is expected to grow 25% over the next few years.

Armed transit police should not be on our public transit system and transit should not be a border checkpoint. We want an immediate end to CBSA collaboration with Translink, Transit police and Translink security. Transit is a right and no one should be targeted or criminalised for accessing it.

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Todos los días en la zona metropolitana de Vancouver, en varias estaciones del tren elevado y paradas de autobús, la policía de tránsito aborda racialmente a los migrantes. En total, trescientos veintiocho personas fueron reportadas el año pasado a la Agencia Canadiense de Servicios Fronterizos (CBSA, por sus siglas en inglés) por la Policía de Tránsito, de los cuales uno de cada cinco enfrenta una investigación migratoria posterior a la detención, lo que sugiere que los otros cuatro fueron abordados por motivos raciales.

Una de estas personas era Lucía Vega Jiménez, quien más tarde se suicidó en un centro de detención. En la investigación oficial sobre su muerte, un oficial de policía de tránsito testificó haber transferido a Lucía al CBSA, en parte, porque tenía un acento que le hizo creer que "ella no era originaria de Canadá."

En lugar de lamentar esta tendencia, en un comunicado de prensa Translink se jacta de cómo la "Policía de Tránsito tiene una fuerte relación con CBSA y anualmente investigan un número significativo de estancias extemporáneas, además de otras violaciones de inmigración". El propio informe de la Policía de Tránsito señala que ésta (la Policía de Tránsito) representó una proporción significativa de las referencias de la Agencia de Policía a las oficinas de la CBSA."

El transporte público está cada vez más militarizado y privatizado, impactando de forma desproporcionadamente racista, a indígenas, pobres y comunidades de indocumentados. Los pasajeros del autobús se enfrentan a la humillación de ser señalados y reprendidos, así como a la amenaza de la violencia. La Policía de Tránsito de Vancouver es la única fuerza de policía de tránsito armada en el país, con un presupuesto anual de $31 millones de dólares que se espera crezca un 25% en los próximos años.

La Policía de Tránsito armada no debe estar en nuestro sistema de transporte público y el transporte no debe ser un puesto de control fronterizo. Queremos que se ponga fin de inmediato a la colaboración entre CBSA y Translink, la Policía de Tránsito y seguridad Translink. Transitar es un derecho y nadie debe ser acosado o criminalizado por acceder a éste.

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Transit Police Report Riders to Immigration Nearly Every Day/Reporte de la Policía de Tránsito sobre pasajeros referidos a migración casi todos los días
http://thetyee.ca/News/2014/07/10/Transit-Police-Immigration-Status/

Transit Police willing to discuss ID checks that could lead to deportation/Policía de Tránsito dispuesta a discutir los controles de identidad que podrían conducir a la deportación
http://www.straight.com/news/684661/transit-police-willing-discuss-id-checks-could-lead-deportation

Lucia Vega Jimenez: Timeline of a tragedy/Lucía Vega Jiménez: Cronología de una tragedia
http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Lucia+Vega+Jimenez+Timeline+tragedy/10253737/story.html