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Harsha Walia

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Harsha Walia
Harsha Walia in 2013
Born
Bahrain
Alma materUniversity of British Columbia
Occupation(s)Activist, writer

Harsha Walia is an Indian left wing activist and writer based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She has been involved with No one is illegal, the February 14 Women's Memorial March Committee, the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre, and several Downtown Eastside housing justice coalitions.[1][2] Walia has been active in migrant justice, Indigenous solidarity, feminist, anti-racist, anti-capitalist and movements for over a decade.[3] In July 2021, Walia raised controversy when she made a public comment in support of church burnings, subsequently leading to the locking of her twitter and social media accounts.[4]

In January 2020 she was announced as the new executive director of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association.[5] Walia is the author of Undoing Border Imperialism (2013), co-author of Never Home: Legislating Discrimination in Canadian Immigration (2015) as well as Red Women Rising: Indigenous Women Survivors in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (2019),[6] and has contributed to over thirty academic journals, anthologies, magazines and newspapers.[3] She is a frequent guest speaker at campuses and conferences across North America.[7]

Activism

No One Is Illegal

In 2001, Walia co-founded No One Is Illegal (NOII), an anti-colonial, anti-racist and anti-capitalist migrant justice movement.[8][9][10] In addition to providing direct support for refugees and migrants facing detention and deportation, NOII campaigns for full legal status and access to city/social services for all people, and works in solidarity with Indigenous self-determination, anti-occupation and grassroots anti-oppression movements.[11][12] Although Walia has worked with NOII groups across Canada, she is primarily associated with NOII-Vancouver. She is a previous member of NOII-Montreal and has assisted the Pakistani Action Committee Against Racial Profiling (Montreal) and Refugees against Racial Profiling (Vancouver).[13]

As a member of NOII, Walia has been involved in several sanctuary campaigns alongside communities and organizers from immigrant and racialized backgrounds.[14] She has participated, for instance, in the campaign to stop the deportation of Laibar Singh, a paralyzed Punjabi refugee;[15][16] the Let them Free, Let them Stay campaign for incarcerated Tamil refugee claimants aboard the MV Ocean Lady and MV Sun Sea;[17] and the Campaign to Stop Secret Trials, calling for the abolition of security certificates.[18] Together with NOII-Vancouver, Walia organizes the Annual Community March Against Racism, which was initiated in 2008.[19] She also collectively organized a No One Is Illegal, Canada Is Illegal contingent as part the 2010 No Olympics On Stolen Native Land convergence in Vancouver.[17]

In January 2014, Walia and NOII-Vancouver demanded an inquest into the death of Lucia Vega Jimenez, an undocumented Mexican refugee who lived and worked in Vancouver, who died in the custody of CBSA four weeks after being detained.[20] Other migrant justice and civil liberties groups as well as over 7,500 petition signers also called for an inquest,[20] which was announced by BC Coroners Service in February 2014[21] and led to several jury recommendations and overhaul of CBSA detention practices.[22][23] In view of Vancouver Transit police's involvement in the incarceration of Jimenez, Walia co-founded the Transportation Not Deportation campaign, which brought about the end of a Memorandum of understanding between Transit Police and the CBSA.[24] Transportation Not Deportation was awarded the 2016 Liberty Award for Community Activism by the BC Civil Liberties Association.[25]

Subsequent to Donald Trump's election and signing of Executive Order 13769 on January 27, 2017, to establish "extreme vetting" procedures for refugees and immigrants attempting to enter the United States, Walia reported a greater volume of incoming calls to NOII from undocumented migrants in the US seeking to claim asylum in Canada.[26] She has stated that, despite many government-sponsored messages that Canada is welcoming to refugees, the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) prevents those who reach the Canadian border via the US from claiming refugee status.[26] Consequently, she has added, many people cross irregularly into B.C., where they are often intercepted by the RCMP.[27] NOII have urged the Trudeau government to repeal the STCA, although the agreement currently remains in effect.[28][27] In April 2017, NOII-Vancouver released and distributed Border Rights for Refugees, a pamphlet available in 17 languages with information for those seeking asylum in Canada.[27]

Walia and NOII-Vancouver also worked with the Burnaby School District to change registration procedures in 2017, ensuring that all children, regardless of immigration status, can access school.[29][30]

Women's Memorial March

For over a decade Walia has worked with the February 14th Women's Memorial March Committee,[31] founded in 1992 following the murder of a woman on Powell Street in Vancouver.[32] Led largely by Indigenous women, the committee organizes the annual February 14 Women's Memorial March for women who have died in the Downtown Eastside (DTES).[33] A 20-year history of the Women's Memorial March is documented in a 2011 short film co-directed by Walia and Alejandro Zuluaga, titled Survival, Strength, Sisterhood: Power of Women in the Downtown Eastside.[34] The film presents footage of recent and previous marches and centres on the voices of women in the DTES, including members of the Downtown Eastside Power of Women Group, who developed the concept for the film.[35] With their film, Walia and Zuluaga seek to "debunk the sensationalism surrounding a neighbourhood deeply misunderstood, and celebrate the complex and diverse realities of women organizing for justice."[34]

Downtown Eastside Women's Centre

From 2006 to 2019 Walia worked as a project coordinator at the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre (DEWC),[6] established in 1978 as a safe, community-driven space for women and children in the DTES of Vancouver.[36] The centre offers support through daily drop-in and emergency shelters, as well as food, advocacy, counselling and housing outreach services.[36] At the DEWC, Walia facilitated the Power of Women (POW) group, a program which is run for and by women living in the DTES.[37] The Power of Women group organizes weekly community discussions and actions with the goal of identifying, resisting and transforming rhetoric and policies that marginalize women.[38] POW is upheld by leadership and involvement of women most affected by systemic injustice, particularly homelessness, abuse, and child apprehension;[38][39] the group's work, Walia says, is therefore "rooted in the experiences and voices of residents of the DTES."[37]

Walia and the Power of Women group together help to organize the annual February 14 Women's Memorial March and have pressured the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) to investigate and act on cases of missing and murdered women.[37][40] They are also involved in numerous housing justice campaigns and coalitions, including the Downtown Eastside Is Not for Developers Coalition.[3][41] 2006 marked the beginning of POW's Annual Women's Housing March for safe and affordable housing for low-income residents of the DTES.[37]

Indigenous Land Defence

With NOII-Vancouver, Walia has assisted the Skwelkwek'welt Protection Centre since 2003 and the Sutikalh Protection Camp since 2004, in their fights against resort and hotel construction on Secwepemc and St'at'imc lands.[42] She has convened Immigrants in Support of Idle No More[25] and is a supporter of the Defenders of the Land Network, the Indigenous Assembly Against Mining and Pipelines,[31] and the Unist’ot’en Action Camp in Wet’suwet’en territory, which she has visited on multiple occasions.[43][44]

Olympic Resistance Network

Walia (left) at a Pigeon Park rally for the Olympic Tent Village, Vancouver 2010

Walia was active in the Olympic Resistance Network (ORN), which instigated a number of anti-Olympic actions and demonstrations during the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver.[45] The actions were in response to escalating homelessness rates of low-income residents in the DTES and cuts to social programs due to urban gentrification in the build-up to the Games.[46] The Women's Memorial March Committee and Power of Women group, both of which Walia is involved in, also resisted the Games by refusing to cancel or reroute the annual February 14 Women's Memorial March,[46] and obstructing the Olympic Torch Relay as it passed through the DTES.[37]

In alliance with numerous other groups, the ORN organized a No Olympics on Stolen Land convergence and several rallies, such as No More Empty Talk, No More Empty Lots.[47][48] During the latter event on February 15, 2010, a tent city known as the Olympic Tent Village assembled on a lot owned by real estate developer Concord Pacific, which functioned as a parking lot during the Olympics.[48] With the support of DTES Elders, residents, activists and organizations, including the Power of Women group, the site served as a community shelter and gathering place from which BC Housing was pressured to provide safe and affordable homes for those in the Village.[48] Over 40 homeless residents were housed as a result of the two-week-long Olympic Tent Village.[48][49]

Following an anti-Olympic demonstration on February 13, 2010, during which black bloc tactics were employed and windows of the Hudson's Bay Company (an Olympic sponsor) in Downtown Vancouver were smashed, Walia defended the protestors, stating that several of them are devoted activists who support marginalized communities and adopt a range of tactics to do so.[50] She also expressed that wearing masks during protests is a reasonable precaution in light of mass surveillance practices, and that black bloc methods can heighten the effectiveness of less direct actions such as the February 14th Women's Memorial March.[50]

Other activism

An active member within Vancouver's South Asian community, with whom she aims to "lift up the reality of what’s going on in South Asia in terms of the global landscape of geopolitical warfare,"[31] Walia is on the board of the South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy.[51] She has been involved in Anti-Capitalist Convergence and the Northwest Anti-Authoritarian People of Colour Network, sits on the board of Shit Harper Did, and is a youth mentor for Check Your Head.[7][52][53]

Arrests

Along with Alice Kendall and Angela Marie MacDougall, Walia was arrested on October 4, 2010, a National Day of Action for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, after occupying a local Vancouver police station to demand an investigation into the death of Ashley Machiskinic.[40] The group was promised a meeting with the chief of police, but the three still refused to leave.[54] The three detained women were released the following day.[40]

Controversies

On June 30, 2021, Walia re-tweeted a twitter news article from Vice World News on the burning of two Catholic Churches with the statement, "Burn it all down". Walia has since then stoked controversy on social media, both criticism from people who described the message as inflammatory and stoking hate, and others who defended the tweet, saying people have no right to police Indigenous people's grief and rage.[4][55] The comment was soon condemned by British Columbia's Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth as "disgusting and reprehensible".[4] Calls have been made for her resignation and apology while her Twitter account has since been locked.

Publications

Undoing Border Imperialism

Undoing Border Imperialism is Walia's first book, published in 2013 as part of AK Press' Anarchist Intervention Series.[56] The book features a foreword by Andrea Smith in addition to contributions by over thirty activists and cultural producers, including Carmen Aguirre, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha and Melanie Cervantes.[57][58]

In the book's later chapters, Walia chronicles the efforts of numerous movements, such as No One Is Illegal, that seek to undo border imperialism.[57] She examines the "bordered logic within our own movements"[31] and discusses ways in which movements can decolonize and grow through self-reflection, leadership from those directly affected by systemic injustice, as well as long-term solidarity with Indigenous communities and other justice-seeking movements.[57][59][60]

Never Home

In 2015, Walia and Omar Chu co-authored Never Home: Legislating Discrimination in Canadian Immigration, a report on the impact of Canadian immigration policies implemented by the Conservative government during Stephen Harper's nine-year tenure.[61][62] The report was part of an "innovative" and collaborative multimedia project by NOII-Vancouver and Shit Harper Did, which included a series of refugee and migrant stories in video form and "put a human face on the impact of the drastic changes made by the Conservative government" with regard to citizenship, temporary foreign workers, family reunification, detention, refugees, deportation, security measures and funding.[61][62]

Red Women Rising

Co-authored by Walia and Carol Muree Martin with contributions by 128 members of the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre, Red Women Rising: Indigenous Women Survivors in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside is a 216-page report on gendered colonial violence in Canada.[63] The report centres Indigenous women's unmediated voices, knowledge, and experiences of violence, displacement, family trauma, poverty, homelessness, child apprehension, policing, health inequities and the opioid crisis, and was submitted to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.[63][64][65] Released in April 2019 by the DEWC, Red Women Rising brings together the direct input from 113 Indigenous women and 15 non-Indigenous women participants in the DTES neighbourhood, with reviews of published research and over 200 recommendations on how to end state and societal violence against Indigenous women, girls, transgender and two-spirit people.[64][66]

Border and Rule

In Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism, which was published in February 2021 by Haymarket Books, Walia further develops her internationalist analysis of migration. The book features an afterword by Nick Estes and a foreword by Robin D. G. Kelley.[67]

References

  1. ^ Collective, Kino-nda-niimi (2014). The Winter We Danced: Voices from the Past, the Future, and the Idle No More Movement. Winnipeg: Arbeiter Ring Publishing. p. 436. ISBN 9781894037518.
  2. ^ "Author, activist Harsha Walia to speak on migrant justice". news.ok.ubc.ca. Retrieved 2018-04-16.
  3. ^ a b c Walia (2013), p. 315.
  4. ^ a b c "Head of B.C. civil liberties group under fire over 'burn it all down' tweet". Global News.
  5. ^ Lupick, Travis (2020-01-06). "B.C. Civil Liberties Association names Vancouver activist Harsha Walia its new executive director". The Georgia Straight. Retrieved 2020-03-06.
  6. ^ a b MacLeod, Andrew (2020-01-10). "Harsha Walia: Looking Ahead with the New BCCLA Head". The Tyee. Retrieved 2020-03-06.
  7. ^ a b "Announcing our #CAPAL17 Keynote Speakers! – Canadian Association of Professional Academic Librarians". capalibrarians.org. Retrieved 2018-03-29.
  8. ^ Walia (2013), p. 98.
  9. ^ "Harsha Walia probes how boundaries oppress us in Undoing Border Imperialism". Georgia Straight Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly. 2013-12-23. Retrieved 2018-03-27.
  10. ^ "No One Is Illegal – Vancouver » Blog Archive » Important NOII Announcement About Future Communications". noii-van.resist.ca. Retrieved 2018-03-27.
  11. ^ Walia (2013), pp. 97–156.
  12. ^ "No One Is Illegal holds celebration to coincide with release of new book Undoing Border Imperialism". Georgia Straight Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly. 2013-12-15. Retrieved 2018-03-26.
  13. ^ Walia (2013), pp. 102, 106–107.
  14. ^ Walia (2013), pp. 98–99, 146.
  15. ^ Walia, Harsha (Spring 2012). "Young, Brown and Proud" (PDF). Our Schools/Our Selves. 21 (3): 31–40.
  16. ^ "Paralyzed man avoids deportation again". Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  17. ^ a b Walia (2013), pp. 153–154.
  18. ^ Walia (2013), pp. 117–124.
  19. ^ Walia (2013), pp. 151–152.
  20. ^ a b "Groups demand inquest into CBSA custody death". Retrieved 2018-04-20.
  21. ^ "Inquest called into CBSA custody death of Mexican woman | CBC News". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2018-04-20.
  22. ^ "B.C. inquest into hanging death recommends holding centre for immigrants | CBC News". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 2018-04-20.
  23. ^ Carman, Tara. "Canada's border agency ignored most recommendations by coroner's jury". Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 2018-04-21.
  24. ^ "Transit Police to end memorandum of understanding with CBSA". Global News. Retrieved 2018-04-21.
  25. ^ a b "The BC Civil Liberties Association is pleased to announce the 2016 Liberty Awards honorees". NationTalk. Retrieved 2018-04-21.
  26. ^ a b "Trump's refugees: Fleeing a xenophobic America". Georgia Straight Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly. 2017-12-06. Retrieved 2018-03-27.
  27. ^ a b c "'Border rights for refugees' to Canada flyer issued in 17 languages | Metro Vancouver". metronews.ca. Retrieved 2018-03-28.
  28. ^ "'We had to run': Refugees walking across B.C. border in fear of U.S. crackdown". Vancouver Sun. 2017-02-12. Retrieved 2018-03-28.
  29. ^ Naylor, Cornelia. "Parents 'need not be afraid'". Burnaby Now. Retrieved 2018-04-21.
  30. ^ "New Westminster School District to vote on sanctuary school policy". Vancouver Sun. 2017-02-10. Retrieved 2018-04-21.
  31. ^ a b c d "Undoing Border Imperialism with Harsha Walia – Canadian Dimension". canadiandimension.com. Retrieved 2018-03-29.
  32. ^ "About". Feb 14th Annual Womens Memorial March. 2009-12-17. Retrieved 2018-03-28.
  33. ^ "An Interview with Harsha Walia - The Feminist Wire". The Feminist Wire. 2014-03-13. Retrieved 2018-03-28.
  34. ^ a b "Survival, Strength, Sisterhood: Power of Women in the Downtown Eastside". Retrieved 2018-03-28 – via Vimeo.
  35. ^ Zuluaga, Alejandro; Walia, Harsha; Downtown Eastside Power Of Women Group, eds. (2011). Survival, strength, sisterhood: Power Of Women in the Downtown Eastside. Vancouver: Downtown Eastside Power Of Women Group.
  36. ^ a b "Our Mission and Purpose". Downtown Eastside Women's Centre. Retrieved 2018-03-28.
  37. ^ a b c d e "Power of Women: Building change at the DTES grassroots | rabble.ca". rabble.ca. Retrieved 2018-03-28.
  38. ^ a b "Power of Women". Downtown Eastside Women's Centre. Retrieved 2018-03-28.
  39. ^ "Introduction". Downtown Eastside Women's Centre. Retrieved 2018-03-29.
  40. ^ a b c "Three women arrested for occupying police station to demand investigation into DTES resident and Indigenous woman Ashley's death are released with charges | Vancouver Media Co-op". vancouver.mediacoop.ca. Retrieved 2018-03-28.
  41. ^ "Report from DTES Women's Housing March, Gentrifuckation Tour, and Block Party to Block Condos". The DTES is not for Condo Developers. 2011-09-18. Retrieved 2018-03-30.
  42. ^ Walia (2013), pp. 132–133, 148.
  43. ^ "Identities of two Mi'kmaq Warriors on RCMP 'threat' list revealed - APTN News". APTN News. 2016-11-10. Retrieved 2018-03-29.
  44. ^ Lee, Jo-Anne (2015-06-01). "Harsha Walia in Conversation with MM&D Editor Jo-Anne Lee". Migration, Mobility, & Displacement. 1 (1): 62. doi:10.18357/mmd11201513643. ISSN 2369-288X.
  45. ^ Zirin, Dave (2013-01-29). Game Over: How Politics Has Turned the Sports World Upside Down. The New Press. p. 62. ISBN 9781595588425.
  46. ^ a b "In the Shadow of the Olympic Flame: A Report from the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, the Poorest Neighborhood in Canada". Democracy Now!. Retrieved 2018-03-28.
  47. ^ Walia (2013), p. 143.
  48. ^ a b c d "Chronicles of the Olympic Tent Village | Vancouver Media Co-op". vancouver.mediacoop.ca. Retrieved 2018-03-29.
  49. ^ "Olympic Tent Village Ends, Homelessness Continues | Vancouver Media Co-op". vancouver.mediacoop.ca. Retrieved 2018-03-29.
  50. ^ a b "W2 forum focuses on black bloc tactics in February 13 protest against Vancouver Olympics". Georgia Straight Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2018-03-29.
  51. ^ "SANSAD". SANSAD. Retrieved 2018-03-29.
  52. ^ "Presenters & Participants". Tragedy of the Market: from Crisis to Commons. 2011-11-17. Retrieved 2018-03-29.
  53. ^ "Harsha Walia". goodreads.com. Retrieved 2018-03-30.
  54. ^ "Three people arrested in Downtown Eastside protest over investigation into Ashley Machiskinic's death". The Georgia Straight. October 5, 2010.
  55. ^ Naylor, Dave (July 4, 2021). "BC Civil Liberties Association boss calls for church burnings".
  56. ^ Walia (2013), p. 323.
  57. ^ a b c Durban-Albrecht, Erin (2014-03-13). "A Review of 'Undoing Border Imperialism' - The Feminist Wire". The Feminist Wire. Retrieved 2018-03-30.
  58. ^ "Undoing Border Imperialism | AK Press". www.akpress.org. Retrieved 2018-03-30.
  59. ^ Mott, Carrie (2016). "Spaces of Solidarity: Negotiations of Difference and Whiteness among Activists in the Arizona/Sonora Borderlands". Theses and Dissertations--Geography. 45: 11–12, 79, 97.
  60. ^ Walia (2013), pp. 253, 264–265.
  61. ^ a b "About | NeverHome.ca". Never Home. Retrieved 2018-04-21.
  62. ^ a b "Migrants slam impact of immigration overhaul | The Star". Toronto Star. Retrieved 2018-04-21.
  63. ^ a b Ball, David (2019-04-03). "'We're rising and taking our place now,' say Indigenous women behind ambitious B.C. testimony project". The Star. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
  64. ^ a b Neigh, Scott (2019-04-23). "Indigenous women rising in the face of violence and injustice". Rabble. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
  65. ^ Sandborn, Tom (2019-07-12). "Book review: Red Women Rising a chorus of DTES resistance and survival". Vancouver Sun. Retrieved 2020-03-07.
  66. ^ Daub, Shannon; Mears, Emira (2019-04-03). "Elevating Indigenous women's voices is critical to addressing gendered colonial violence". Policy Note. Retrieved 2020-03-08.
  67. ^ Walia, Harsha (2021). Border and Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism. Chicago: Haymarket Books. ISBN 9781642592696.
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