0:00:00.338,0:00:03.714
Yeah, I mean, what we have was a number of immigration enforcement raids,

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um, on a number of construction worksites,

0:00:05.408,0:00:10.085
and undocumented workers, or workers who um y'know currently don't have legal work permits in canada

0:00:10.085,0:00:12.284
but are otherwise going through the immigration process,

0:00:12.284,0:00:14.890
were picked up, arrested, detained.

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Uh, this was at the Victoria (Drive) site, was done, at the behest of a reality tv show,

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which is incredibly alarming, the fact that there is a reality tv company that is making money,

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including a vancouver-based entertainment production company,

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that is profiting off the fact that people are going through, yknow, being arrested, being interrogated,

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and being violently shackled as they're being detained and deported.

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And so the fact that this immigration style raid happened

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is yknow really reminiscent again of U.S. style enforcement.

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A lot of enforcement was present

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and then coupled with the fact that there's a reality tv show

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i think both together are really quite alarming.

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[ <i>interviewer</i> ] And what's the problem with the tv show um showing what border agents do day in and day out?

0:00:53.258,0:00:55.867
Well I think the premise of it is what's disturbing, right?

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Which is the fact that um tv sells sensationalism,

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so the fact that border service agencies are gonna be --I would argue--

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are going to be more kind of forced to make their raids more sensationalist.

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They're gonna be treating people in, yknow like what we saw,

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where they had a massive team of enforcement officers kind of come down on people,

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and also the fact that its a basic violation of people's rights.

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So today I talked to some of the workers at the jail,

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and yknow, so Force 4 is not confirming or denying that they were filming,

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but the workers said that, yknow, in the jail, while they're being detained,

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guards and officers are telling them that they have to sign a consent form.

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So there's absolutely no consent,

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and if there's consent it's under conditions of duress.

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So I think it's really disturbing that we're, um, yknow,

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allowing entertainment to be made and profited off of

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that's basically at the expense of people.

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Again and I think it's yknow it's disturbing.

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It's like all these American reality tv shows like the cops shows, right?

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Where you see these violent take-downs,

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and brutal, again, violations of people's privacy,

0:01:52.617,0:01:55.384
and, again, it glorifies what border service agencies do,

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without looking at the fact that these are family members who are being ripped apart.

0:01:58.523,0:02:01.092
Without looking at the impacts of what they're actually doing, right?

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It's completely one-sided, it's like embedded journalism.

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There's no talking to these people about <i>their</i> lived reality,

0:02:06.630,0:02:11.402
it's just trying to yknow show these border services agencies as glorified police officers.

0:02:11.402,0:02:12.975
They're in different legal situations.

0:02:12.975,0:02:14.943
So some of them are on expired visas

0:02:14.943,0:02:17.742
some of them are actually currently going through different immigration processes.

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Some of them are currently making sponsorship applications.

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Some of them have gone through the refugee process.

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So there's actually a range of, um, of legal statuses in terms of the workers.

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Yeah, they're trying to do their job,

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and I think the question is yknow what does it mean to have massive-style enforcement raids

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where workers have been working for years and years and years

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many of them are currently going through the immigration processes,

0:02:38.429,0:02:41.263
there's also the oxymoron of the immigration system,

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which is that a lot of people aren't actually given work permits,

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but are somehow expected to take care of themselves and their families,

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so they end up in situations where they're working despite not being given a work permit.

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And so I do think there's a question of yknow why are we seeing this level of enforcement?

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And why aren't we instead talking about

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why is there are greater number of workers who are not able to work legally in this country?

0:02:58.113,0:02:59.928
And that is, I think, the main question.