“Let Beverley stay!”The chant rang out over a symphony of car horns Tuesday morning in the intersection of Yonge and Bloor Sts. as Black Lives Matter Toronto held court to protest the impending deportation of a Jamaican woman who recently gave birth to her new son. At 8:07 a.m., organizers strode into the intersection holding signs and megaphones, and joined hands to keep traffic at bay. In the middle of their circle, where the roads converged, a small table was set up, containing protest representatives, Beverley Braham, her husband and her son. Braham, who is married to a Canadian and now has a Canadian child, balanced her newborn son on her lap as she spoke to press.“All I ask is to stay with my family,” she said. Braham was first threatened with deportation in March, when she was 31-weeks pregnant. She was given an extension of three months so that she could have her child, but now Canada Border Services Agency has told her that she must be back in Jamaica by Sept. 21. “For Black Lives Matter, we are in support of black families, and we believe that black immigrant lives matter,” said Syrus Marcus Ware, a member of Black Lives Matter Toronto. “We’re here today to demand that Beverley Braham be allowed to stay in Canada. She is going through her 12-month sponsorship and it’s not yet up; it’s unjust that they’re deporting her at this point.”Despite the continuing blare of honks threatening to drown her out, Braham detailed how she was locked in a detention centre for three days, starting on Sept. 6. “They refused to let me see my child. They took away my baby from me and they tell me I have to leave,” she said. “In detention, they didn’t have any food to give me for my child . . . (and) they refused to give me my baby stuff because (the detention officer) told me that I am under arrest. I’ve never ever breached any of the conditions that was g ...
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