By Preeteesh Peetabh Singh
Dialog Reporter
Image used by activists advocating for Toronto to become a Sanctuary City.
City council recently passed a motion declaring Toronto a “sanctuary city” by a vote of 37-3. A policy which will now allow everyone, regardless of their immigration status, to access services like education, housing, health care, social and emergency services without the fear of being detained or deported.
This motion also requires training all city staff and managers to ensure that people living in the city can access all services without being asked for their status.
Darcy Farrell, a student in the community worker program of George Brown College said, “It is absolutely positive news. There are people living underground, in some neighbourhoods, in some communities who are undocumented. It will be important for them to put their kids in school and get access to services.”
It has to be noted that similar education policy is already in practice in Canada for many years. According to section 49.1 which was added in the Education Act in 1993, a person who is otherwise entitled to be admitted to a school and who is less than 18 years of age shall not be refused admission because the person or that person’s parent or guardian is unlawfully in Canada.
The declaration of Toronto as a sanctuary city can be a viewed as a policy that will invite consistent practices towards education for all, irrespective of age and status. These practices will not only be applicable for students in elementary and secondary schools but also in colleges and universities.
Pablo Godoy, coordinator at Students Against Migrant Exploitation (S.A.M.E.) said, “Declaring Toronto a sanctuary city might help students realize more than anything that people are equal. We can’t base our access to services and benefits primarily on whether we have status or not.”
S.A.M.E. works to fight against any type of migrant exploitation by engaging students on campuses and communities across Canada. They will be visiting George Brown College on March 20 to participate in the annual labour fair, conduct talks and deliver presentations on migrant and precarious work.
He referred to the poster and set of guidelines passed by the Toronto District School Board in 2010 and said that it was important to do so on their part because not all of them chose to be born where they are born or migrate to places where they eventually land up.
“Once you are here in the country, you probably are contributing one way or the other to the society, whether it is through education, purchasing power or any type of work that you are doing, under the table, over the table, official or unofficial”, said Godoy.
“I think Canada’s immigration system is broken and that’s one of the reasons that many people find different ways to immigrate to Canada. There is a bigger issue there, why people migrate to Canada, what are their problems and what are the solutions to their problems, economic political or otherwise. Once you are here, you should be able to access services; I don’t think anybody can be in a position to deny basic human rights.”
