Abdelkader Belaouni is telling me about his day.“Every day I wake at seven,” he begins. “Ten afterseven at the latest. I make my bed, listen to thenews. Around 7:20 or 7:30, I head downto the kitchen.” He methodically lists his dailyactivities. “I play the piano — I’m getting lessonsnow. Around one — after lunch — I use the stationarybike for fifteen or twenty minutes.”

Belaouni can’t get his exercise outside. He can’t gooutside.

Abdelkader Belaouni has not left St. Gabriel’s Churchin Montreal since he took sanctuary there on January1, 2006, defying Immigration Canada’s deportationorder.

The nights are the hardest. “I have a lot ofnightmares.” His voice is quiet. He explains that hecan’t sleep without medication; even with themedication he often wakes at three in the morning. “Ithink a lot… I think too much.”

Belaouni has a lot on his mind. On November 21, 2005Immigration Canada notified him that on January 5,2006, he would be deported — forced to abandon a lifeand community that has taken him three years to buildand over a decade to find.

Belaouni fled Algeria, his country of birth, in 1996.He left behind a civil war that took the lives of over100,000 people and a country where he no longer feltsafe. He moved to New York City, but after September11, 2001, he no longer felt safe there either.Belaouni crossed the border, filed a refugee claim,and became one of more than 200,000 people in Canadaliving without status.

Refugee claimants will wait months or even years tolearn whether Canada will award them permanent status.In the meantime, “you’re a second class citizen,“notes Jordan Topp, a member of The Committee toSupport Abdelkader Belaouni. Lack of permanent statusmakes finding work extremely difficult, “even ifyou’re a professional — a nurse or an engineer — yourdegree doesn’t mean anything once you get here,” sheexplains. “[Non-status people] end up doing the shitjobs that no one else wants.”

Belaouni reports thatmany of his non-status friends also suffer from stressand depression — as he does — while living under theconstant threat of deportation. Non-status people(like refugee claimants) are only covered foressentials and emergencies under Canada’s medicalsystem, and some — like Belaouni — are not covered atall.

Living in such a precarious state is not a choice thatmany people make willingly, says Topp. “Peoplegenerally don’t want to leave their homes andfamilies. They don’t want to uproot theirentire lives and move.”

But many people — likeBelaouni — do. They do, says Topp, because they’refleeing — among other things — war, poverty andoppression. And although many refugee claimants maycount themselves as “lucky” to be here, Topp saysCanada is partly to blame for many people’s initialdisplacement.

Canada’s foreign policy and immigration systemcontribute to what Topp calls the “global apartheid” — a system where a minority of the world’s populationcontrols a vast majority of its wealth and power, asystem where capital can move freely but the majorityof people cannot.

“Canada’s economic and geographicinterests take priority over people’s well-being,” sheasserts. Topp gives the example of mining projects inthe global south that benefit Canadian multinationals;people are displaced and livelihoods lost due toCanada’s economic interests, “yet we won’t let theminto Canada because they don’t fit the bill,” saysTopp. “Immigration Canada makes boxes that you have tofit into,” — boxes into which few people can fit.

One of these boxes used to assess Humanitarian andCompassionate Applications for permanent residence isbased on whether or not an individual has“established” themselves in Canada. According toImmigration Canada, the fact that Belaouni does nothave a job, and does not have a wife and child heremeans that he has failed to establish himself inMontreal.

Belaouni argues, however, that he does have a familyin Canada; he has a family of friends and supporters.His connections and contributions to his community arereflected in the over 40 organizations in Montrealthat are supporting his demand for status, mostrecently the French-speaking branch of AmnestyInternational in Canada.

Belaouni also says that hewas working, he just wasn’t being paid. For over ayear he had been volunteering with The Multi-EthnicAssociation for the Integration of Persons withDisabilities. His involvement with that particularorganization points to another reason he couldn’t findpaid work despite his best efforts: Belaouni is blind.According to Topp, this, along with his non-permanentstatus means that he’s facing “huge systemicbarriers [to employment].”

According to a study conducted by the CanadianNational Institute for the Blind last year, only 25 per centof blind and visually impaired people are employed — and only 30 per cent of those people have permanentemployment. As a non-permanent resident, Belaounididn’t qualify for government programs that may haveincreased his chances of employment.

“We ask people toprove that they’re established,” explains Topp, “butthen create a system where it’s next to impossible forthem to become established.” Topp is tired of thehoops non-status people are expected to jump through,and the boxes they are expected to fit into, in orderto prove that they deserve to stay in Canada.

Topp is not alone. Last June up to a thousand peopletook part in the No One Is Illegal March On Ottawa.The 200 km. march from Montreal to Ottawa was organizedby Solidarity Across Borders, a network of selforganized migrants, refugees, immigrants and theirallies.

With a rallying cry of “No Borders, NoNations, Stop The Deportations!” Solidarity AcrossBorders asserts that all people — not just wealthy andeducated people — should be able to decide where theywish to live and work. To this end, they call for anend to deportations and the regularization of allnon-status people.

Belaouni and his supporters have reframed the debate.Instead of focusing on risks he may face if forced toreturn to Algeria, they are making the case that heshould be allowed to stay based on his right — on therights of all human beings — to choose where he liveshis life. But won’t Canada’s borders be flooded withrefugees? “That’s exactly the point,” says Topp.

Topp’s analysis is shared by Samir Shaheen-Hussain, amember of the No One Is Illegal collective in Montreal. “Because ofthe primal injustices that exist globally, people should be ableto move wherever they wish,” says Shaheen-Hussain. “Solong as wealthy, powerful corporations andnation-states continue to benefit from the oppressionand exploitation of those living in the global South,those people who are displaced should have the freedomof movement to determine where they will live.”

This economic and political analysis of theimmigration system may seem radical to some, and theproposed solutions may be dismissed as ‘unrealistic’but the No One Is Illegal movement is gaining ground;No One Is Illegal groups have been established acrossCanada and around the world.

Besides, argues Topp, the normalization of immigrationcontrols is a relatively new phenomenon.

“Until recently, people have been able to migrate towhere they are best able to live and survive. Today,that’s not possible unless you have a bank accountwith over $200,000 in it or are one of the people whomeet the very narrow criteria of persecution requiredfor refugee status.”

This narrow criteria is also applied in an arbitrarymanner, continues Topp. In the last two years that Belaouni’s refugee officer sat on the Immigration andRefugee Board, he accepted only one person. “That’s whypeople call it a lottery,” she explains. “It haslittle to do with the actual case and more to do withthe person you end up in front of.“

Although The Committee to Support Abdelkader Belaouniis doing everything it can to help Belaouni win thelegal “lottery” for permanent status, it is alsotrying to shift the terms of debate about refugeesfrom ideas of charity to ones of justice, dignity andautonomy — from benevolence to solidarity.

At a pressconference announcing his intention to take sanctuaryin St Gabriel’s Church, Belaouni was clear. “I’m nothiding from Immigration Canada, but I want to tellthem clearly, I will not be presenting myself fordeportation. I’ve been able to achieve autonomy anddignity in Montreal, and I don’t want to lose that. Myfamily are my friends here. I am here to defendmyself; I am here to defend justice.”