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安省移民服务机构联会发公开信要求警方执行多伦多避难城政策

来源:OCASI   更新:2017-02-27 20:44:33   作者:OCASI

Chief Mark Saunders

Toronto Police Service

40 College Street

Toronto, Ontario M5G 2J3

 

Dear Chief Saunders:

 

Re: City of Toronto’s Sanctuary City Policy

 

We are community organizations who work with people with precarious immigration status, and are supporters of the City of Toronto’s Sanctuary City policy.

 

In a recent editorial, the Toronto Star quoted from a study by Ryerson University which found that Toronto has never dedicated adequate leadership, planning and funding to make real the Council’s 2013 motion making Toronto a Sanctuary City. Even more disconcerting is the finding that Toronto Police are “flagrantly ignoring” their own Board’s policies on undocumented migrants by asking victims, witnesses, and complainants their immigration status and passing it on to the Canadian Border Service Agency (CBSA).

 

The same editorial includes a comment attributed to the spokesperson of Toronto Police Services (TPS) Mark Pugash who says police do not ask for immigration documentation “unless it’s relevant. But if you become aware of (illegal immigration status), you are required by law to report it.”

 

 

Contrary to what Mr. Pugash has said, there is no legal obligation on the part of police to report anyone with precarious immigration status to the CBSA and as such the statement is simply legally wrong.

 

While s.142 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act requires peace officers to execute any warrant or order for arrest, detention or removal from Canada, in the absence of any such warrant or order, the Act does not obligate peace officers to report someone to CBSA simply because they are undocumented.

 

At best, Mr. Pugash’s statement demonstrates a complete ignorance about the law. At worst, it signifies a refusal on the part of TPS to abide by the 2013 Access Without Fear motion passed by Toronto City Council.

 

Outside of an arrest warrant it is simply impossible for police officers to determine who is in or out of status due to the complexities of the immigration legislation on the one hand, and police officers’ lack of expertise in immigration law on the other. There are potentially many individuals with various types of precarious status who are easy victims if police officers improvise as immigration status experts.

 

We are extremely concerned that some police officers and members of the public may take Mr. Pugash’s comment as an invitation to go after anyone that they regard as “illegal”. In this climate of xenophobia, racism and islamophobia, those who are most likely be targeted by such action will be people of colour, and people who appear to be of Muslim faith.

 

As the leader of the largest police service in Canada, (and one of the largest in North America) we call on you to immediately issue a public announcement to correct your staff’s inaccurate statement, and to state your own commitment to protect and serve all Torontonians regardless of their immigration status.

 

We also call on you to start operationalizing the City’s Access Without Fear policy by requiring all officers to stop reporting victims, witnesses and complainants with precarious status to the CBSA.

 

Yours truly,

 

Debbie Douglas, Executive Director, OCASI – Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants

Loly Rico, President, Canadian Council for Refugees

Centre for Spanish Speaking Peoples

Michael Kerr, Coordinator, Colour of Poverty – Colour of Change

Ibrahim Absiye, Executive Director, CultureLink

East Toronto Community Legal Services

Francisco Rico-Martinez, FCJ Refugee Centre

Flemingdon Community Legal Services

Immigration Legal Committee of the Law Union of Ontario

Inter-Clinic Immigration Working Group

Jennifer Stone, Neighbourhood Legal Services

No One is Illegal – Toronto

Avvy Go, Clinic Director, Metro Toronto Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic

Parkdale Community Legal Services

Catherine Bruce, Director - Refugee and Immigration Legal Services, GTA, Refugee Law Office

Eusabio Garcia, Salvadorean Canadian Association

Shalini Konanur, Executive Director, South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario

CC. Mayor John Tory

Toronto City Council

 

相关报道:


Toronto must enforce its ‘sanctuary city’ status: Editorial

 

Toronto cops face illegal immigrant dilemma

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