A telephone interview with Naava Smolash, member of the No One Is Illegal Vancouver collective.
Produced for the CKUT (www.ckut.ca) community news collective in Montreal by Aaron Lakoff.
aaron (at) resist.ca
Laibar Singh, a 48-year old Punjabi refugee living in Vancouver, was due to be deported on December 10, ironically Human Rights Day. Singh, who became paralyzed after an aneurysm last year, presented himself at the Vancouver airport for deportation, despite an incredible outpouring of support from the city's Sikh community and beyond.
However, upwards to 1500 of Singh's supporters rallied at the airport prior to his deportation, and peacefully blocked the Canadian Border Service Agency (CBSA) officials from getting to the taxi where Singh was waiting. The flight that was due to deport Singh took off at 2:30pm, and he wasn't on it. His deportation has now been temporarily postponed, and his supporters are quickly preparing for their next step.
We spoke on the phone with Naava Smolash, a member of No One Is Illegal Vancouver, who participated in the demonstration yesterday and has been actively involved in supporting Laibar Singh.
For more information, visit: http://noii-van.resist.ca www.noiivan.blogspot.com http://aaron.resist.ca www.ckut.ca