Immigrants are welcome!

No One Is Illegal and allies gather inside the Montreal Congress Center to picket at the Bouchard-Taylor Commission

From the demo flyer: "The Bouchard-Taylor Commission was created in the context of xenophobia during an election campaign and has provided an uncontested platform for racism, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism."

"Opportunistic politicians and corporate media have appealed to public fears and prejudices, and manipulated false controversies over religious practices and cultural differences to create a generalized hysteria, with little to no basis in fact.

We will not accommodate this racist Commission!

From the demo flyer: "We are organizing to openly and publicly reject the commission process and framework. To engage the Commission process is to validate its fundamentally racist premise, which is to stand judgment of immigrant communities."

Silhouettes with the names of migrants who've been forcibly deported in the past several years.

Dolores of the South Asian Women's Community Center during the speak-out at the picket.

An elder with Solidarity Across Borders tries to access the Commission hearings upstairs ...

... and the rest of the crowd follows.

At least 75 people gathered to picket; about 180 people attended the public forum.

From the demo flyer: "The “reasonable accommodation” debate in Quebec, and the so-called “Bouchard-Taylor Commission”, are fundamentally rooted in xenophobia, racism and sexism."

"From the outset, the “debate” fails to recognize that Quebec and Canada are built on stolen Indigenous land, and constituted through the dispossession and genocide of Indigenous peoples who have been forced into “accommodating” colonization."

"We declare: Ni patrie, ni état; ni Québec, ni Canada! We refuse to submit to any form of nationalism."

Watching the Commission from televsion monitors. The hearings were broadcast live on RDI.

Just outside the main hearing doors.

Too close for comfort for security, and the PR managers of the Commission.

The cops intervene ...

... the picket disperses ...

... but the cops target individuals for arrest ...

... and attack protesters outside.

The police indiscriminately attack a crowd that includes children and elders, using batons, and drawing their Tasers.

Media work is an important part of the effort ...

At an earlier press conference of the "Rejetons l'intolerance au Quebec" Coalition of which NOII is a part: (l-r) Anna of the Immigrant Workers Center; Carmen of the Centre Libanais; May of the El Hidaya Center; and Nazila of NOII-Montreal.

Despite the police attack on November 27, protesters return again on November 29, for another speak-out and picket.

On ne va pas accommoder cette commission raciste!

Members of Women Against Poverty picket at the Commission.

From the demo flyer: "This Commission, sanctioned by the state, is a process of submission, whereby minority populations are forced to justify their very existence in Quebec."

"The way this debate is framed ignores all the current intolerance and injustice faced by many migrant communities in Quebec, while forcing them to defend themselves as “good Quebecois”."

"We organize by uncompromisingly putting forward a vision of social justice, rooted in day-to-day grassroots struggles."

"In contrast to the faulty framework of “reasonable accommodation”, we assert “solidarity across borders”, in the spirit of mutual aid and support."

Photos by Caroline L'Allard, Ion Etxebarria (b&w), Tatiana Gomez and others. Text by JBS.