Prison

Much of the ground may be covered in a thick sheet of ice right now, and piles of snow have been growing around the construction site for the new migrant prison in Laval for weeks, but that doesn’t mean the Canadian government isn’t hard at work preparing the next stages of construction for this monstrosity, nor that we should turn our attention away until after the spring thaw. ...

According to this article in a local Salaberry-de-Valleyfield newspaper from January 29th, the building facade of the excavation company Loiselle, located at 280 Pie-XII Boulevard in Saint-Timothée, was redecorated. The words “NO TO THE MIGRANT PRISON” can be read. The article indicates that this crime was committed with racist intentions, specifying that the company has no idea why it would have been targeted. We do not know the intentions of the vandals, but we know that a new prison for migrants is supposed to be constructed in Laval, and that this company received the contract for decontamination and excavation for this project. Is it not the fact of imprisoning and deporting more migrants that is racist? It’s only logical that the companies involved in the construction of this prison would be targeted. ...

This episode features two interviews with organizers of New Years Eve noise demonstrations in Hamilton and in Montreal. We talk about the rage and sadness we feel about the existence of prisons, noise demonstrations, building traditions and rituals, and our favourite New Years Eve stories. Links: Seven Years Against Prison (2015) Montreal Against Prisons International Call For New Year’s Even Noise Demonstrations (English, 2018)

Citizenship can only exist and be valued if there is also a category of others, those without status. For this distinction to exist, it must be enforced by the state, which has a number of tools to do so. Deportation is one such tool. Deportation is a violent process in which the state removes all agency from an individual in order to exclude them from the territory over which it asserts its authority. To accomplish this task, the state uses different tactics, one of which is detention centers or migrant prisons. Migrant prisons are used as holding centers prior to deportation. People without status can be arrested and imprisoned while they wait to be flown out of the country, sometimes to far-away lands that they have no relationship to. ...

Between November 23rd and Dec 7th, we are calling for autonmous actions to block the construction of the new migrant prison in Laval. Under the pretext of improving detention conditions for migrants, the CBSA has been given a huge government budget to develop “alternatives” to detention and to build two new migrant prisons. While the state uses words like “humanized” and “alternatives” to describe their project, we know this is merely an expansion of the prison and border systems. The so-called “alternatives” and the new prisons serve the same purpose: to expand the CBSA’s capacity for border enforcement and immigration policing, to imprison and deport migrants and to rip people away from their families and communities. One of these prisons will be built in Laval on land owned by the Correctional Services of Canada, ostensibly replacing the existing migrant detention center. Two architectural firms have been contracted to build this project: Lemay (based in St. Henri, Montreal) and Groupe A (Quebec City). Work has already begun on the site of the future prison. ...

From the 21st to 26th of October, 2018, Montreal will be the site of the International Corrections and Prisons Association (ICPA) conference, hosted by Correctional Services Canada. The theme this year is “Beyond Prisons: The Way Forward.” Highlighted as topics of some of the conversations are: going forward to make imprisonment and community supervision both more humane and effective, using technology to humanize corrections, and improving community engagement. ...

Dear supporters, You are commended for your work on our behalf. None of us thought that we would gain so much support by sharing our conditions with the public. The negative perception of us inside seems so concrete that it became surreal when we began to read our demands in the newspaper, and hear that our situation has gained national attention. When discussed among us, it was decided that the time has come to take a different approach, and this is the result of our different approach. Our non-violent strategy is a success. It has set a precedent for other counties to follow suit. ...

When is the Laval Immigration Detention Centre slated to be built? The prison is supposed to be operational in 2021, though no official timeline has been made public. Where will the prison be built? The site for the prison is an approximately 23,700 square metre piece of land directly beside Leclerc prison, on Correctional Service of Canada grounds in Laval. The CBSA was reluctant to select this plot of land, noting that “the close proximity of the site to the existing high security institution is not ideal as IHC [Immigration Holding Centre: their euphemism for the prison] should not be perceived to be associated with a correctional institution.” This site was officially chosen in February 2017. ...

K’jipuktuk GMB of the IWW issues statement in solidarity with prison strike. K’jipuktuk, Unceded and Unsurrendered Mi’kmaq Territory Whereas Prisoners at Burnside Jail have begun a peaceful protest in pursuit of 10 reasonable demands, and have expressed support for and solidarity with the “National Prison Strike” in the United States, Whereas the protest organizers “call upon all people with a conscience beyond the bars” to support their statement and demands, ...

Some anarchists came together on the night of August 23rd to cover Montréal’s Vieux Port (Old Port) in posters that read in both French and English: Resisting Slavery: From Marie-Joseph Angélique 1734 to Prison Strike 2018 August 21 – September 9th More Info: twitter.com/JailLawSpeak We postered along the same streets that Angélique was paraded down moments before she was hung, and then burned. Angélique, we remember. Slavery, stolen land, and attempted genocide define the contours of the ever-forming settler states of Turtle Island (North America). In solidarity with prisoners currently fighting slavery inside all US prisons, we wanted to (re)tell the story of Marie-Joseph Angélique. Angélique was a Black woman enslaved in Montréal during the 18th Century who was sentenced to torture and death for allegedly setting fire to her slave owner’s domicile, which resulted in the majority of the city of Montréal burning. We offer Angélique’s story as a reminder that Québec and Canada were engaged in the practice of slavery for over 200 years. We chose Angélique’s story because it connects the city we live in to the ongoing story of resistance to slavery on this continent. ...

We, the prisoners of Burnside, have united to fight for change. We are unified across the population in non-violent, peaceful protest. We are calling for support from the outside in solidarity with us. We believe that it is only through collective action that change will be made. We recognize that the staff in the jail are workers who are also facing injustice. We are asking for a more productive rehabilitative environment that supports the wellbeing of everyone in the system. These policy changes will also benefit the workers in the jail. ...

Launch of a new website for the campaign against the construction of the proposed Laval migrant prison In 2016 the federal government announced the construction of a new migrant detention center in Laval. This prison, which is anticipated to hold up to 158 undocumented migrants, is intended to be built on Correctional Service of Canada grounds, right beside Leclerc prison, and is slated to open in 2021. While the Liberal government is attempting to spin this project as a more humane way to detain migrants, we call it what it is – a prison, and know that this is simply prettier window dressing on a violent system of imprisonment and deportation, one that keeps people locked in cages while tearing apart families and communities. We want a world without prisons or colonial borders, a world where people, not states, can decide how they can move and where they can stay. Stopping the construction of the Laval Immigration Detention Centre is one step in the struggle to tear down migrant prisons everywhere. ...