Rallies, vigils and a hunger strike were held across Canada today.

More than a thousand assembled in Dundas Square to listen to speakers, including Naomi Klein, and marched through the streets of Toronto in protest, while others began a hunger strike in front of the Israeli consulate as of 7 a.m. this morning.

While immigrant rights groups pressure the federal government via high-profile marches and rallies, anti-immigration forces are pushing punitive laws on the state and local levels. Thousands of immigration reform proponents rallied last week to push federal lawmakers to pass reform this year, but the Arizona House of Representatives passed one of the toughest immigration laws in the country, which enables racial profiling of Latinos.

If the Senate fails to propose a reform bill this Spring, immigration reform won’t be on the agenda for 2010. With elections at the end of the year, it’s uncertain if reform will pass after that, as the resulting Congress could be more conservative.

More rallies from the grassroots