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Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg, June 20, 2023 – Almost twenty Migrant Justice Organizations and South Asian Diaspora Groups from across Canada urge Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister, Sean Fraser, to put a definite stop to the deportation of scores of international students from India.

“These students entered Canada like any other international students and they should not have to bear the burden of proof because of fraud committed by immigration consultants and education recruiters” stated the joint letter. Receiving deportation orders and the precarity of having to live with a constant threat of being separated from their families and uprooted from their communities and the associated struggle and turmoil is a painful process and is punishment in itself.

For over two weeks, from May 28, students, their supporters and community members had set up a permanent protest in front of the CBSA headquarters in Mississauga. While this protest now ended with your announcement on June 14 to halt the deportations, students continue to express their concerns over the next steps in this process. Migrant Justice Organizations and South Asian Diaspora Groups stand in solidarity with the students and believe there can be no justice until their demands are met, which are: a permanent solution to the situation, a definitive cancellation of the deportations, and granting them permanent resident status. Nothing short of this is acceptable.

These individuals who arrived in Canada as international students call Canada home and have become integral parts of our lives. They are an asset to our communities and should be living here without any hassle or threat of deportation.

Deportations are a long standing form of institutional racism, and are manifested in the violent and coercive practices of the state. This situation is yet another example of how the Canadian immigration system and CBSA fail people and produce undocumented migrants. This is why regularization is necessary. Just like Migrant Justice and hundreds of civil society groups across Canada, the signatories of the joint letter call for a comprehensive, inclusive and ongoing regularization program for all people with precarious status. All migrants should be given permanent resident status on arrival. Migrants already here must be granted permanent residency.

Close to twenty groups that signed the joint letter urge the minister to take prompt and decisive action to provide a permanent solution, and immediate regularization and permanent resident status for these students and all undocumented people across Canada. Without this, there can be no justice.

Status for All, Dignity for All!

Signatories of the joint letter:

Butterfly (Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Support Network), Toronto
Centre sur L’Asie du Sud (CERAS), Montréal
Immigrant Workers Centre/Centre Des Travailleurs Et Travailleuses Immigrants (IWC-CTTI), Montréal
India Civil Watch – International, Toronto
Migrante Alberta, Edmonton
Parkdale Community Legal Services, Toronto
Progressive Cultural Association, Calgary
Pro-People Arts Project Media Group (Sarokaran Di Awaz), Toronto
Punjabi Literary and Cultural Association, Winnipeg
Quebec Public Interest Research Group – Concordia University (QPIRG), Montréal
Rang Collective: Arts for Solidarity/Collectif Rang: Les Arts pour la Solidarité, Montréal
Shaheed Bhagat Singh Book Centre, Calgary
Solidarity Across Borders, Montréal
South Asian Dalit Adivasi Network – Canada, Toronto
South Asian Diaspora Action Collective (SADAC), Montréal
South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD), Vancouver
South Asian Women’s Community Center/Centre Communautaire Des Femmes Sud-Asiatiques (SAWCC-CCFSA), Montréal
Teesri Duniya Theatre, Montréal
Workers’ Action Centre, Toronto


CC Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration:

Shafqat Ali, MP
Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe, MP
Sukh Dhaliwal, MP
Fayçal El-Khoury, MP
Arielle Kayabaga, MP
Tom Kmiec, MP
Jenny Kwan, MP
Marie-France Lalonde, MP
Larry McGuire, MP
Hon. Michelle Rempelle Garner, MP
Brad Redekopp, MP
Salma Zahid, MP

Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault has further spelled out what he wants to see in a new body that would oversee monitoring and communications around pollution problems in the oilsands.

In a letter dated March 16 to his Alberta counterpart Sonya Savage, Guilbeault said the new federal-provincial-Indigenous group would look at a wide variety of issues stemming from releases of tailings pond water from Imperial Oil’s Kearl mine. Although Savage has agreed to a new joint body, Guilbeault’s proposal seems to go farther than what she suggests.

“I am proposing the establishment of a joint federal-provincial-Indigenous working group, with participation from the oil companies, to give transparency to all parties involved by meeting on a regular basis to discuss remediation and containment plans, as well as notifications for ongoing incidents of spill or seepage,” Guilbeault wrote in the letter.

“A communication protocol should be established,” he said. “It would be the basis of improvements for future environmental emergencies notifications, reform of water monitoring and strong involvement of Indigenous communities.”

Guilbeault said the exact mandate has yet to be determined. Still, it seems to be more than Savage wants.

A statement from her office earlier this week said Alberta wants to improve communications and start a group for “accelerating collaboration on a long-term solution for the treatment and remediation of tailings ponds.”

That statement didn’t mention including First Nations in the group or any reforms to monitoring.

Guilbeault’s letter refers to Ottawa’s responsibilities in protecting fish habitat and treaty rights, both of which may have been affected by the Kearl releases.

That’s a message to the province that Ottawa intends to have a greater role in monitoring the oilsands, said Martin Olszynski, a professor of resource law at the University of Calgary.

“What (Guilbeault’s) saying is, ‘Let’s be clear, I have to be involved.’ The jurisdiction is clearly there for the federal government.”

Ottawa has been criticized both at home and internationally for inconsistent enforcement of the Fisheries Act.

In 2020, the environmental watchdog set up under North American trade agreements found there was valid evidence of oilsands tailings in groundwater around the ponds but no sign that it had affected any federal enforcement decisions. That same body found little co-ordination between Ottawa and Edmonton on the issue.

Guilbeault’s letter may be a sign the feds are taking action on those concerns, Olszynski said.

“They recognize this is a bigger issue. It’s not just about notification, it’s a question of what is going on with these tailings and their management.”

The first release from Kearl was spotted and reported in May as discoloured water near a tailings pond. It was found to be tailings seepage but no further updates were provided to area First Nations until February, when it was disclosed to the public and both environment ministers along with a second release of 5.3 million litres of tailings.

Imperial said earlier this week that the cleanup of the second spill is nearly complete. It said the seepage is being “mitigated,” although it continues.

Both Imperial and the provincial government say there has been no impact on waterways or wildlife, although neither have granted requests to see the data on which that assurance is based.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 17, 2023.

Bob Weber, The Canadian Press