Toronto Star columnist Joe Fiorito supports Corey Glass's right to remain in Canada, and Juana Tejada's. Tejada is originally from the Philippines. She has been living and working legally in Canada since 2003. Now, ill with cancer, she is being deported.
Fiorito seems very optimistic that Corey and other resisters will not be deported. I can only hope he's right.
These two pieces in neighbourhood Toronto papers spotlight Corey Glass and his fellow resister Chuck Wiley. We've had a lot of press like this, in small papers from wherever resisters are living. Even in generally conservative areas - Kingston, Sudbury, Simcoe, Owen Sound - the media has been extremely supportive.
There also has been a lot of French-language coverage in Quebec, and several local and national radio stories.
The Guardian (UK) ran this piece. It concludes:
Opposition MP Olivia Chow, who introduced a motion calling on the government to allow Glass and others to stay, said: "The government had to listen, even though they didn't want to in the beginning," she said. "Canadian values haven't changed that much in terms of we are a peaceful country and we want to allow people that would be deported to jail to stay in Canada."
But the citizenship and immigration minister, Diane Finlay [sic], said Stephen Harper's administration would not be swayed by emotional pleas. "The emotion in the House does not change the law in the country."
Ms. Finley, the laws in Canada are supposed to be made by people. And the people, through their elected representatives, have already spoken. They said: Let Them Stay.
What you dismiss as "the emotion in the House" is called democracy.
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