Montreal, March 23 2018 — Montrealers will be rallying on the steps of City Hall at noon today to hold Montreal mayor Valérie Plante to her Sanctuary City policy and feminist positions in the case of Lucy Francineth Granados. Granados – a non-status single mother, worker and community organizer with the Non Status Women’s Collective – was arrested by CBSA in Montreal on Tuesday morning. Currently detained at the Laval Immigration Detention Centre, she was refused release by the Immigration Review Board yesterday and faces deportation on March 27th.
Lucy was violently arrested in the early hours of March 20th by the Canada Border Services Agency in the city of Montreal. The arrest took place despite Montreal’s adoption of a “Sanctuary City” policy in February 2017. Since then, residents have been demanding that the office of Valerie Plante, who campaigned on the promise to implement a real Sanctuary City, take up her cause.
“Lucy is my friend and also a neighbour. One morning I wake up and she’s gone, they came in the night and took her away. I don’t want to live in a city that let’s things like that happen to its residents. Our mayor should be standing up for us!” said Bill Van Driel, who lives down the street from the apartment where Lucy was arrested.
Nearly 10 years ago, Lucy came to Canada after the death of her husband, with the hope of being able to support her three children. Viviana Medina says “Non-status women face extreme workplace exploitation, lack of access to basic services like healthcare, and the constant threat of deportation. Throughout her campaign, Mayor Plante claimed to be a feminist. We are now calling Plante to publicly support Lucy and, by doing so, support all of the other non-status women who call Montreal home. ”
A member of the Non-Status Women’s Collective and Temporary Agency Workers Association, she is well known in her community as an organizer for migrant justice and workers rights. “Lucy has worked tirelessly to make Montreal a better city for all of us and now it is our time to support her. ” says Viviana Medina.
Last summer, Lucy submitted an application for permanent residency on Humanitarian and Compassionate grounds. Immigration Canada is currently in the process of evaluating the application, and normally a response could be expected at any time.
Supporters are asking Plante to take action to ensure that Immigration Minister Hussen and Public Safety Minister Goodale intervene to stop her deportation, so that her file can be properly studied. ”What is absolutely injust about this situation is that Lucy was in the process of regularizing her status through the only legal channel available, and now she will never even be able to see a response to that application”, says Amy Darwish. “If Lucy gets deported, and Plante chooses to do nothing to prevent it, then what kind of Sanctuary City is this?”
Source:
Solidarity Across Borders