Wednesday, May 21, 2025

Watching from the Other Side of the Fence

 It feels like we’re standing just across the yard, watching our neighbour’s house catch fire—knowing the wind could shift at any moment.

From Canada, we watch what’s happening in the U.S. with ICE—families torn apart, innocent people detained, even American citizens mistakenly imprisoned or deported. We see women and children disappear into the system, and we don't know where they go—or what’s being done to them. It’s terrifying. And we’re told to wait for the courts to sort it out. But justice after the fact doesn't save lives.

And what about the crematoriums in Mexico? That horror was real. Was it a warning? A test run? A glimpse of how far things can go when the world looks away?

We are watching from the other side of the fence, but fences don’t stop fire—or fascism. Canada must not wait until it’s too late to build protections. We must be proactive, not reactive. We must demand transparency, accountability, and humanity—before the knock comes to our own door.


Background: What’s Happening in the U.S.

  • ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has been detaining individuals, sometimes without cause or due process.
  • Documented cases exist of U.S. citizens—some even born in America—being wrongly deported or imprisoned.
  • Families are separated; children have been lost in the system for months or even years.
  • Women report abuse, medical neglect, and sexual violence in detention centers.

The Unknown Fates of Women and Children

  • Many detainees disappear into a vast bureaucratic maze.
  • Court cases, when they do happen, come long after the damage is done.
  • Public records and data are often withheld, leaving the true scale of the crisis unknown.

The Mexican Crematoriums: A Dark Warning

  • Mass crematoriums discovered near border areas shocked the world.
  • Questions remain: who was burned, why, and was there any accountability?
  • The silence around these atrocities is chilling.

Why Canadians Should Worry

  • Policies and practices can travel across borders.
  • Canada has its own history of wrongful detentions and mistreatment—especially of Indigenous people and migrants.
  • Private prison lobbying, anti-migrant sentiment, and opaque immigration policies are all red flags.

What Canada Must Do Now

  • Enact preventative legislation to ensure transparency and due process.
  • Ban private immigration detention facilities.
  • Ensure full legal representation for all detainees.
  • Establish independent oversight bodies with real power.
  • Protect whistleblowers and journalists exposing abuses.

A Call to Vigilance and Action

We can’t pretend it’s not our problem because it hasn’t happened here yet. Justice delayed is justice denied—and silence is complicity. We must speak, act, and build firewalls of accountability before the fire jumps the fence.

The time to care is now. The time to act is now.

Before it’s too late.

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