Montreal musicians hold outdoor concert as rally, call on Ottawa to regularize migrants

The mellow tunes of reggae and the beat of the Punjabi drums known as the Dhol can be heard outside Place de la Gare-Jean-Talon on Saturday. Montreal artists organized the outdoor concert at the old station, located in Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Montreal riding of Papineau.

“This is about human rights,” said Hady Anne, spokesperson for Solidarity Across Borders. “It’s not about migrants or about politics or about something else, it’s about human rights.”

Advocates are urgently calling for the federal government to create an uncapped regularization program that will grant all undocumented migrants’ permanent residency, and that they immediately stop deporting and detaining them.

“Not having status do not allow you to have decent housing,” said Aboubacar Kane, an advocate for migrants with precarious status. “You won’t have health care. You won’t be able to go to the hospital when you’re sick and get treatment. You won’t have a job. You won’t have social life.

“The status is everything that allow you to integrate, to live fully in this society. So not having it is like a barrier that stops you from resources that help people to live a decent life.”

“The status is everything that allow you to integrate, to live fully in this society.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau mandated Immigration Minister Sean Fraser to find ways to regularize the status of undocumented workers in 2021. But organizers say nothing concrete has been done since then – and that the situation has only gotten worse.

Through speeches and singing performances, artists are also advocating for the abolishment of the Safe Third Country Agreement and that the federal government provide permanent status to all migrants on arrival.

“If you’re fleeing your country because you are not safe in your country, I think people need to let you go where you feel safe,” said Anne.

“Let people go in and ask asylum where they feel safe. It’s very simple and we can do it. I don’t know why they are still play with people’s life.”