Toronto: A Warrior Queens Needs Your Help

[Jacuma]

URGENT APPEAL FOR SUPPORT LETTERS FOR WENDY MAXWELL

We bring to your attention an urgent and extremely important
matter of concern to us all. Last Saturday at the
International Women's Day Fair at Ryerson University, a
remarkable and very courageous community activist, Wendy
Maxwell, was shamelessly arrested and detained by Toronto
Police division 51 officers. She faces *IMMINENT* deportation
to Costa Rica, where her life would be seriously in danger.
She was forced to leave her country in 1997 for fear of being
killed by members of a local drug cartel. In Canada, she fell
in the hands of a different sort of mafia working as an
exotic dancer. Wendy took a stand for her self and for other
women in her same situation by taking her employers to court
and denouncing their actions to the police.

Wendy has been fighting the Ministry of Citizenship and
Immigration for status in Canada, and has been living
underground in Toronto since December 2003. Her arrest on
Saturday at an International Women's day event, no less, lays
bare for everyone to see the co-ordinated targeting by
Toronto Police and CIC enforcement, specifically of women,
People of Colour, and all immigrants and refugees living
without status in this country.

Attached is a form letter that her supporters have written to
the newly incumbent Citizenship and Immigration Minister, Mr.
Joseph Volpe. We are asking organizations to show their
support for Wendy by completing the letter and signing it on
your letterhead. The letter, attached below, urges the
Minister to use his discretion to grant Wendy Maxwell a
Temporary Resident's Permit so that she can remain in Canada
legally until her application to CIC for status on
humanitarian and compassionate grounds can be heard, that she
be released from detention immediately, and denounces the
despicable collaboration of the Toronto Police with CIC to
carry out Immigration's racist and violent work at an
International event directly aimed at fighting against
oppression and violence against women.

Wendy has an extremely strong case on Humanitarian and
Compassionate grounds, but this will become virtually
irrelevant if she is deported before that application has
time to be heard. Despite the day-to-day risks involved with
being a non-status woman of colour, the list of different
community groups and initiatives that Wendy is integral to,
is extensive, and broad ranging, most notably, her commitment
to and her work within marginalized communities in Toronto:

With Street Light Support Services she gave workshops to help
women in their transition out of the sex trade industry. She
collaborated with the Latin American Coalition to end
Violence Against Women (LACEV now known as MUJER) to develop
a similar project. She volunteered her free time at the
Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic at the Ralph Thornton
Community Centre, and with the Black Coalition for Aids
Prevention (BlackCAP). She is a programmer and co-host of a
community radio show as a part of a collective of Latin-
American women called Sembradoras on CKLN 88.1. She also co-
wrote a book in collaboration with McGill University for the
Canadian Aids Society (CAS).

Please feel free to contact us with any questions or further
support you can offer.

Sincerely,
The Wendy Maxwell Support Committee
Support Letter contact person: Jess Lyons (416) 939-2641

THE COMPLETE DETAILS OF NZINGA'S STORY, ACCESS TO HER ON-LINE
PETITION, INFO ON THE FUNDRAISING APPEAL & MORE CAN BE FOUND
ON http://www.ocap.ca

events see: http://8rooks.com/future_events.html

1) TUESDAY, MARCH 8, '05!/ JOIN SUPPORTERS OF WENDY MAXWELL
FOR AN INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY RALLY & MARCH, TO THE
TORONTO POLICE SERVICES BOARD!!!/ THIS WILL TAKE PLACE @ 12
P.M. @ RYERSON UNIVERSITY'S JORGENSON HALL -- 280 VICTORIA ST.

2) THURSDAY, MARCH 10, '05/ CKLN 88.1 FM'S PRESENTS "TAKE
BACK THE MIC" --AN INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY PARTY
CELEBRATING WENDY MAXWELL A.K.A. QUEEN NZINGA!/ ORIGINALLY
PLANNED BY WENDY, THE NIGHT FEATURES POWERFUL SPOKEN-WORD
(EvE of I.S.I.S. CIRCLE), SALSA DANCING, TUNES BY DJ LA
BOMBA, A SPECIAL ALL-FEMALE DANCEHALL SET WITH GUNZ 'N'
ROZES...& MUCH MORE!/HOSTED BY AFUA COOPER, THIS PARTY WILL
BE LIVE-TO-AIR ON CKLN 88.1 FM!/TICKETS R $5 @ DOOR/ B-SWEET
LOUNGE @ 1279 QUEEN ST. W. (W. OF DUFFERIN)/ALL PROCEEDS 2
SUPPORT WENDY MAXWELL!

FOR FURTHER DETAILS, VISIT WWW.OCAP.CA! PLEASE STAY TUNED TO
CKLN 88.1 FM http://www.ckln.fm

4 TAPED BROADCASTS OF WENDY'S MESSAGES OF THANKS. THANK U 2
THE HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE WHO HAVE CALLED, E-MAILED & SHOWN
THEIR SUPPORT. NZINGA IS EXTREMELY HUMBLED & HONOURED!


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