Bring Shadmith Home
She Needs Your Help!
Immediate action is required to reverse the decision by officials of the department of immigration who deported Toronto transgendered activist Shadmith Manzo (Luis Ezequiel Manzo Chavez) on August 27, 1998.
Shadmith sought asylum in Canada on the grounds that she would be persecuted as a transsexual in Mexico. She was rejected, partly on the grounds that she would be perfectly safe in Mexico provided she lived as a man and in the closet. She was deported after 3 1/2 years in the country.
Shadmith has been an important and productive member of the TG community in Toronto. She has worked as a counselor and activist and is well known and widely loved and admired. She recently married Crystal Kwong in a wonderful two-bride wedding.
While Mexico technically has human rights protections for queers, police harassment is common, and transsexualism isn't even recognized as existing. A recent report published by a Mexican Commission on Homophobic Hate Crimes documented over 150 violent murders of queers in the last three years.
In some regions, as recently documented in Tijuana, the police themselves make it a practise to arbitrarily arrest, humiliate, beat, and rape transgendered persons.
Even if that isn't enough for Canadian immigration authorities to rule that someone is in danger if returned to their country, their reasoning (insisting that she stay in the closet) is profoundly disturbing. Moreover, it seems that immigration officials could have found other grounds on which to keep her in the country.
This decision has all the hallmarks of a racist, homophobic, and transphobic reaction by officials within the department of immigration.
Shadmith is legally married to her female partner (as a result of the fact that Shadmith is not yet legally female), and they are planning to get her back into the country under family status. However, that could take time.
For more information, you can contact Shadmith's lawyers office by FAX at [416] 489-9618, attention: Barbara Jackman.
Call your local MPs, and Lucienne Robillard's office to denounce the deportation of Shadmith, and insist that she be returned to Canada, her spouse, and her community.
Help fund Shadmith's costs to return home.
Make a Donation to the Shadmith Trust Fund:
Trust Fund:
Payable to Crystal Kwong in trust for S. Manzo
National Trust
50 Bloor Street West,
Toronto, Ontario,
Canada M4W 1A1
Telephone (416) 925-1173
Account # 04-014077027 Branch 051
Branch Hours are:
Monday to Friday 9-5
Thursday and Friday 9-7
Saturday 9-2
Register Your Protest and Demand Shadmith's Return!
Contact:
Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Canada
Hon. Lucienne Robillard
365 Laurier Avenue West
Jean Edmonds South Tower, 21st Floor
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada K1A 1L1
Telephone: (613) 954-1064
Fax (613) 957-2688
email: Lucienne Robillard
Contact Shadmith's Member of Parliament:
Mr. Bill Graham (Toronto Centre-Rosedale)
Patricia Wells, (contact familiar with Shadmith's file)
Telephone (416) 954-2222
Fax (416) 954-9649
email: Bill Graham
Contact your own Member of Parliament!
For more information:
Contact Shadmith's spouse, Crystal Kwong
Email Crystal Kwong here!
Visit the Shadmith Page via:
TS Menace - Toronto
Your comments and suggestions are welcome!
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