sanctuary

That’s right! Spring has sprung and it’s time to get ready for the annual May Day celebration.

 

I remember last May Day, I was covering the demonstration and the Occupy Toronto 24 hour occupation of Simcoe Park in downtown Toronto.

Last year, May Day was linked to the Occupy movement — Occupy Canada officially launched across Canada on October 15, 2011, with 34 cities declaring their participation one month after the Occupy Wall Street movement took off in the U.S.

A little background on Occupy: The Occupation on Wall Street began on September 17, 2011 which was Constitution Day in the United States.

On September 17, 2011, 1,500 people rallied and attempted to set up their HQ right on Wall Street to start the occupation, though the New York Police Department kyboshed that plan. The HQ eventually settled down at Zuccoti Park, which was then christened Liberty Park.

Occupy Canada rallies joined the growing movement on the October 15th Global Day of Action. rabble.ca’s ongoing coverage of the Occupy movement can be found at this link.

Occupy Toronto official camp was raided in late November 2011 after forty days and nights. While there were small encampments since the raid, Occupy officially presented itself to the public again on May Day 2011 by occupying Simcoe Park.

Last year, May Day began with Occupy Toronto hosting a massive chess game of the People vs. the 1% , then had a wonderful pro-gardener, pro-food garden party at Queen’s Park.

Then came a spirited march through Toronto for May Day organized by the May 1st Movement, and supported by community groups like No One Is Illegal (NOII) and Occupy Toronto.

In the evening, as mentioned above, a separate march started from Alexandria Park at Dundas Street West and Bathurst Street at 9:00 pm which went on to Occupy Simcoe Park for 24 hours.   You can view images from the day here

Toronto was participating in an Occupy call out for a May Day general strike. Back in November 2011, Occupy Los Angeles called for a General Strike. While there were smaller general strike actions in California – including the Oakland “General Strike” of November 2, 2011 – the call was taken up by other U.S. cities for May 1, 2012. Thus, the M1GS action was born, and Toronto, Montreal and Winnipeg all participated.  

For this year’s May Day celebration, Toronto is following the call of Sanctuary City.

On Thursday February 21, 2013, Toronto City Council passed the motion – by a vote of 37 to 3 – that declared Toronto as a Sanctuary City. This requires that all city staff and managers be trained to ensure Toronto’s estimated 200,000 non-status residents can access its services without fear of being turned over to border enforcement officers for detention and deportation.

This vote makes Toronto the first Canadian city with a formal policy allowing undocumented migrants to access services regardless of immigration status.

The full principles of Sanctuary City are listed by NOII as the Don’t ask, Don’t tell policy. This includes

–Access to city services is not discriminatory on the basis of immigration status. All residents of the city would have access to vital city services, including health care, education, emergency services, housing, food banks, and social services.

–City workers, along with applications for city services, would be forbidden from inquiring into immigration status. All residents of the city with less than full legal status as citizens or permanent residents could apply for and use city services without fear that their immigration status will be discovered.

–City workers, should they discover the immigration status of persons accessing city services would be prohibited from sharing this information with Citizenship and Immigration Canada. All residents of the city would be able to access city services without fear that information they provide will place them in risk of deportation and detention.

–Municipal funds, resources and workers will not be used to enforce federal immigration laws. The Greater Toronto Enforcement Centre (GTEC) has its own mechanisms for handling federal immigration matters. City funds could be used where they are necessary – improving city services!

Here is the schedule for this year’s May Day celebrations (I will update this schedule closer to May Day in a separate Communique):

This year, the festivities include:

The festivities include:

1:00pm –

–A Free Food Feast (Potluck offerings welcome!) & Open Musical Jam

–Workshops on: seed saving, seed-bomb making and engaging with food policy

–Speakers on: justice for migrant workers; Indigenous food sovereignty and more (tba)

–Live Musical Theatre: “No Garden is Illegal” – The Story of The Birth, Life, Death & Rebirth of the People’s Peas Garden”

–Replanting of a Free Community Food Garden at Queen’s Park

4:00pm –

–Creature Crawl from Queen’s Park to Seedy Hall, Nathan Philips Square

5:30pm –

–May Day March departs from City Hall – destination Little Norway Park to support the striking Porter Airport workers

 

 

Krystalline Kraus

krystalline kraus is an intrepid explorer and reporter from Toronto, Canada. A veteran activist and journalist for rabble.ca, she needs no aviator goggles, gas mask or red cape but proceeds fearlessly...