Services without fear: Historic win for undocumented residents of Toronto

Big shout out to everyone who worked on this campaign. This is a significant victory for undocumented immigrants and refugees in this country who have been under relentless attack these past few years from the racist policies of immigration minister Jason Kenney and the Conservative government in Ottawa.

[url=http://www.rabble.ca/news/2013/02/services-without-fear-historic-win-und... without fear: Historic win for undocumented residents of Toronto[/url]

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Today, after a marathon nail-biting debate, Toronto City Hall strengthened its promise to provide services to residents without full immigration status or all their immigration documents. Read the exact motion here.

You called, wrote, met, and pressured your Councillors and they were forced to listen. The first step is complete, and we have a new mission for you.

We need you to go out and make sure that Toronto services are now actually accessible. Sign up here and we will get in touch with you on exactly how. There is a lot of work still to be done, and together we will make it happen.  

City Hall instructed Chris Brillinger, Executive Director, Social Development, Finance and Administration to put together a report on how to improve access to services without fear including training, a complaints protocol and a communications blitz by September 2013.

That means we need to spend the next six months ensuring the right recommendations get on this report and that these recommendations actually pass at City Hall after that.

Many services like housing, healthcare, welfare, labour protections, safety from police brutality childcare, disability services, and immigration status are managed by the province and the federal government. The City will be writing to Ontario and Canada to demand that they to step up. Get in touch with us and help us write up the recommendations that need to go in to these letters. We are looking for people from other cities in Ontario to pass similar policies, if you are interested, get in touch. We are at solidaritycitytoronto[at]gmail[dot]com

Some media coverage:

Torontoist: City to Explore “Access Without Fear” Policy for Undocumented Residents
CTV News: Council votes in favour of motion to help undocumented residents
CBC: Toronto council approves sanctuary for undocumented residents
Toronto Star: Toronto declared ‘sanctuary city’ to non-status migrants
NOW Toronto: Council votes to protect undocumented residents
Toronto Star Opinion: Ensuring basic rights in Toronto for undocumented newcomers
Toronto Star: Toronto considers giving underground migrants access to services without fear
NOW Toronto: Syed Hussan on making T.O. a Sanctuary City
CBC Metro Morning: Undocumented people
InsideToronto: Undocumented workers in Toronto fear for future, city committee told