Yesterday, Wednesday March 13 2013, the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) conducted armed raids at several sites in Vancouver, Unceded Coast Salish Territory, including construction sites and reportedly at least one residence to round up undocumented workers to deport them. Why is it that the Canadian government supports allowing Canadian corporations to operate freely anywhere in the world but criminalizes the movement of labourers?

Many of the workers who are being detained have been living in Vancouver for years and have partners and family here, so a lot of pain is rippling through our communities.  Several are partnered with indigenous women.  Very disturbingly, one of the raids included a large number of armed plainclothes CBSA agents surrounding a construction site while a TV crew filmed the raid for a reality television show.  The raid was conducted to create a spectacle for the cameras, to be packaged and sold as entertainment! And of course the pain and fear of the workers and their families is rendered invisible. This is not acceptable.

We demand regularization for undocumented workers!  This has been done before for other groups of workers/undocumented members of Canadian society and it can absolutely be done again.