On March 21, hundreds took to the streets of Montreal in a powerful demonstration for justice for all migrants. This was not a symbolic gathering but a living expression of broad solidarity bringing together students, housing groups, unions, precarious migrant workers, temporary foreign workers, asylum seekers, and those resisting deportations.
Notre manifestation du 21 mars
This mobilization took place on the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, a day rooted in the 1960 Sharpeville massacre in South Africa, when police killed 69 peaceful protesters opposing apartheid. This memory is not simply historical. It is a reminder that state violence against oppressed people is part of a system that continues to reproduce itself, from apartheid to today’s immigration regimes.
In Canada today, this system takes another form. Racial discrimination is not incidental but structural, embedded in immigration policies and the labor market. Migrant workers, especially those tied to closed work permits or precarious status, are pushed to the margins and exploited as disposable labor.
This is not a flaw in the system. This is the system.
Temporary migration programs, restrictions on open work permits, deportation policies, and barriers to regularization all function to produce a workforce stripped of rights and afraid to claim them. These policies are inseparable from racial discrimination. They are one of its clearest expressions.
As demonstrators made clear, eliminating racial discrimination cannot be achieved through statements or empty words. Governments cannot denounce racism while continuing to enforce policies that reproduce it.
Ending racism means dismantling these systems at their roots
It means open work permits
It means ending employer tied work permits
It means stopping deportations
It means full regularization for all migrants
The struggle against racism is inseparable from the struggle against exploitation. It is a fight for dignity, for the right to stay, and for the right to live and work without fear.
What we witnessed on March 21 was not just a demonstration. It was a moment of organization and unity. A clear message that migrant workers are not alone and that collective solidarity can confront a system built on exclusion and exploitation.
The struggle continues.
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