“A sign of our strength and unity”: The launching of the ‘Regularize Now’ Quilt Project

The Migrant Workers Alliance for Change (MWAC) launched the quilt they sew together using pieces created by participants, migrants and from communities connected to migrant support organizations in Toronto, including FCJ Refugee Centre.

In the coming months this quilt will travel across Canada to different cities to raise awareness for the Status for All campaign by the Migrant Rights Network (MRN).

The launching of the’ Regularize Now’ Quilt Project took place last weekend at the “Beat the Bosses Bootcamp,” a labour justice event organized by Workers Action Centre at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU).

Below is a transcription of the speech that a member of the FCJ Youth Group, participant in the Quilt Project from FCJ, delivered at the event:

Good afternoon, thank you all very much for being here.

The Quilt Project is a sample of how much strength and unity we have as human beings, and, since every action counts, we are very happy to know that many people put their creativity in this beautiful work that represents the call for the legalization of a dignified status for all.

For the FCJ Refugee Centre community it is very important to highlight equality among all members of the community, and that is why we joined this campaign, with the hope to fight and open roads to projects that allow regularizing a dignified status for all people. We firmly believe that the fight for rights is a team effort and we are proud to be here today working for the dignity of all migrants.

Coming to this beautiful country has helped me a lot to discover who I am. It is a difficult process being a migrant because of the language barrier, but thanks to the people who have given us support and love, I have been able to understand that being a neurodivergent trans person is not bad as I had it ingrained, I have accepted myself and I have understood that I am a wonderful person, that I have the courage to continue fighting and that I am not afraid to raise our own voice.

Now we want to be spokespersons for all the people who are on this path, so that they are not afraid to raise their own voices, so that they are not afraid to know who they are.

Each one of us is our own phoenix, we fall and rise from the ashes, ready to continue fighting this battle called life. We are all immigrants, we are people, we are brave and fighters in this journey.

We are all one.