Struggle Against Migrant Prison in Montreal Heats Up as VP of Architecture Firm’s Car Torched

Cover photo from LaPresse.ca

Over the last couple of months, the struggle in so-called Canada in the area of Montreal has been heating up. As one recent report wrote:

The new prison in Laval is part of a 138$ million package announced by the federal government to accompany its 2016 National Immigration Detention Framework (NIDF). Of the total, 122$ million is allocated for the construction of two migrant prisons. Two Quebec-based firms, Lemay and Groupe A, have signed 5M$ contracts to build the prison in Laval. We are impatiently awaiting the announcement of the general constructor;

A true marketing ploy, the NIDF attempts to shift the public debate from the question of why migrants are detained in the first place to that of the conditions of their detention. In this way, the government prides itself in building a prison that camouflages the fact that it is a prison.

People who are detained often suffer psychological and physical violence at the hands of Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) agents. Since 2000, at least 16 people have died in CBSA custody.

Acts of sabotage have been ongoing, with attacks on prison construction infrastructure and the firms behind its development happening continuously. Noise demonstrations, public marches, and other forms of resistance have also added to the building pressure from the grassroots against local elites and developers to abandon the project.

According to an anonymous post on Montreal Counter-Info, recently the struggle has intensified, with a BMV of the Vice President of the architecture firm designing the migrant prison being set on fire on June 11th, a global day of solidarity with long-term anarchist prisoners. The anonymous communique stated:

On the day of solidarity with long-term anarchist prisoners, the BMW belonging to André Cardinal, parked in front of his private residence in NDG, was set on fire. André Cardinal is the Vice President of Lemay, the architecture firm designing the migrant prison in Laval.

May fires burn for all that the worlds of prison and borders have stolen from us.

For more information on the struggle against the migrant prison and for future updates, check out Montreal Counter-Info.