Black Lives Matter - Toronto shuts down Yonge and Bloor Intersection, Demands Let Beverley Braham Stay!

TORONTO, Sept. 19, 2017 /CNW/ - Black Lives Matter – Toronto (BLMTO) activists have occupied the intersection of Yonge street and Bloor street, demanding that immigration detainee and mother and wife to Canadian citizens, Beverly Braham be allowed to stay.

The activists have announced a press conference to be held at 8:00 a.m.

Protesters are demanding justice for Beverley Braham, a Jamaican woman in a sponsorship process that is about to be completed, who is married to Canadian and mother to a Canadian citizen, and who is facing a deportation order scheduled for September 21, 2017. Braham has been detained with her 2 month old newborn for 48 hours in immigration detention and is facing a removal order. Activists are urging that she be allowed to stay until her sponsorship is complete.

"We need everyone to get behind Beverley Braham- this is a clear cut case of bias against a black woman who challenged the Canadian immigration system" said Leroi Newbold, co-founder of Black Lives Matter – Toronto. "Beverley should be spending her fourth trimester building her family here, and enjoying her new child. Instead she has been in the fight for her life, and that of her baby, and has faced inhumane detention with her tiny infant. This is not just. We are here to say enough is enough. Let Beverley Stay!"

Black Lives matter-Toronto activists decry the woeful process of separating parents and children and argue that this deportation will rip a Canadian family apart. "There has been a wicked history of tearing apart black families through violence and deportations that stretches as far back as life on slave labour camps, with families torn apart and sent up and down river, and that continues today in cases like this." said Syrus Marcus Ware, core-team organizer with Black Lives Matter – Toronto. "We are here today to shout NO MORE, and to push forward the message that #blackfamiliesmatter".

LET BEVERLEY STAY! LET BEVERLEY STAY! LET BEVERLEY STAY!

Black Lives Matter – Toronto is the Toronto chapter of #BlackLivesMatter, an international organization and movement fighting police and state violence and anti-black racism.

#LetBeverleystay
#BeverleyBrahamMustStay

SOURCE Black Lives Matter - Toronto

For inquiries, contact: Syrus Marcus Ware at [email protected] or 647-990-5316; Ravyn Wngz at [email protected] or 647-710-3669