REPORT FROM VANCOUVER
Today March 9, 60 people gathered in front of CIC offices to denounce the sanctuary violation that led to Mohamed Cherfi’s arrest and deportation, and to demand that Mohamed Cherfi be brought back home.

REPORT FROM VANCOUVER

Today, March 9, 60 people gathered in front of CIC offices to denounce the sanctuary violation that led to Mohamed Cherfi's arrest and deportation, and to demand that Mohamed Cherfi be brought back home.

The rally consisted of solidarity messages from the Palestine Community Center, South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy, Vancouver Association of Chinese-Canadians as well as public denouncements of the IRB
and CIC by activists and an outspoken refugee lawyer. Those gathered were moved by an aboriginal prayer conducted to ensure the safe return of Mohamed Cherfi to his home.

The message was clear: Mohamed Cherfi is not the criminal, the refugee system and the government is. Zool Suleman, a refugee lawyer, spoke about the repressive new immigration legislation, which does not yet have the Appeal division as it promised, and reinforced that the public should be outraged at the violation of sanctuary to deport a brave human rights defender. Nandita Sharma was impassioned about the need to put people's survival and dignity before the Canadian state's racist agenda against communities of the global South.

Protesters carried banners and flyers "Bring Mohamed Cherfi home". Several cab drivers outside the offices and those entering the offices were keenly interested in the information. One Algerian man exited the CIC offices with a deportation date within two days and joined the demonstration for refugee rights and justice for Mohamed Cherfi. In his words: “I have fled from a horrible civil war in Algeria. But still it does not compare to here. Here it is not a civil war, but it is a war of a different kind which I have been facing for four years. Here they pretend there is no war.