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After a campaign to free Maura, a 41-year-old transgender woman originally from Nicaragua, generated thousands of emails — including at least 3,000 Urgent Actions from Canada — to the ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) San Diego Field Office, the agency has finally released her. Maura was detained for over 800 days in a facility accused of medical neglect and failing to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks. 

Following her release, Maura said:

I am so, so happy. I still can’t believe it. I thought I wasn’t going to get out of that place, I thought I wasn’t going to get out of that hell. It was very difficult, very traumatic, very horrible. I thought I was alone in this world. I thought it wasn’t worth it to keep fighting. And then I realized that there were people around the world, who I didn’t even know, very good people who have been very supportive. They supported me by sending me letters, they gave me moral support. I am very happy for all that, very grateful.

Learn more and take action in support of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and two-spirit (LGBTQ2S) rights while practicing social distancing.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted LGBTI people. People have been forced into lockdown with homophobic and transphobic family members. Some governments have used the pandemic as an excuse to crackdown on a whole range of human rights, including LGBTI rights. LGBTI human rights defenders are at a heightened risk of persecution. Connecting in person with chosen family, communities of care, and other supports has often been impossible. And now, the pandemic is forcing Pride activities online for the second straight year. The need for virtual communities of care and solidarity, and global activism in support of LGBTI rights has never been greater! Join us during Pride season to take action in support of LGBTI rights!

By Justin Mohammed, Samer Muscati and Hanna Gros

“I felt like the world was ending for me,” an asylum seeker told us, describing her experience in immigration detention after fleeing her home country in Africa. “I thought, ‘Maybe I should have stayed back home and died there.’” She is only one of the hundreds of thousands of uprooted people who are detained around the world every year.

Stories of mistreatment of migrants and asylum seekers – particularly by US authorities – are widely covered in Canadian media. But what may come as a shock to Canadians is that the woman we interviewed experienced this abuse in Toronto.

She was arrested and handcuffed upon arriving at the airport in 2019. She was taken to the Toronto immigration detention centre and held alone in a cold cell with a metal bed, a toilet, and surveillance cameras. When she became sick, she reported it to a nurse, who gave her Tylenol and said, “I have no right to talk to you.”

Amnesty International spoke with educator and water defender Angela Levasseur. Angela is from O-Pipon-Na-Piwin Cree Nation (also known as South Indian Lake) and lives in Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation (also known as Nelson House). Her home community is deeply impacted by decades of Manitoba Hydro operations. Angela spoke about the impacts of these operations and the urgent need for action to stop Manitoba Hydro from being granted permanent access to continue flooding her community.