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With the recent Harper Conservative majority, an omnibus crime bill is being proposed that will double the budget for policing, expand prisons, enforce mandatory minimum sentences, and focus on punitive instead of rehabilitative programs. This U.S.-style approach will further criminalize poor people and communities of colour.
At the same time, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews and Minister of Censorship and Deportation Jason Kenney have re-introduced Human Smuggling Bill C4. Based on the internationally-condemned Australian model, this bill proposes mandatory detention for migrants for 12 months.
The "tough-on-illegals" and "tough-on-crime" approach are intrinsically linked. Prisons and detention centres disproportionately target low-income, Indigenous, migrant, and racialized communities who are already over-surveilled and over-incarcerated. In an era of economic austerity and social inequality with job losses, service cuts, expansion of temporary workers programs, relentless resource extraction, and increased privatization, it is no coincidence that cops and corporations are getting more power to further control and impoverish marginalized communities.
Join No One Is Illegal Vancouver (Coast Salish Territories) and Streams of Justice for a free public forum and discussion.
Ten Reasons to Stop Harper's Conservatives: http://noii-van.resist.ca/?page_id=4153
People v. Kenney - Tories Record on Immigration: http://noii-van.resist.ca/?page_id=4139
For more information email noii-van@resist.ca or call 778 552 2099
