No One Is Illegal In 2001, Walia co-founded No One Is Illegal, an
anti-colonial, anti-racist, and anti-capitalist migrant justice movement. In addition to providing direct support for refugees and migrants facing detention and deportation, NOII campaigns for full legal status and access to social services for all people and works in solidarity with Indigenous self-determination, "anti-occupation", and grassroots anti-oppression movements. Although Walia has worked with NOII groups across Canada, she is primarily associated with NOII-Vancouver. She is a previous member of NOII-Montreal and has assisted the Pakistani Action Committee Against Racial Profiling (Montreal) and Refugees against Racial Profiling (Vancouver). As a member of NOII, Walia has been involved in several sanctuary campaigns alongside communities and organizers from immigrant and racialized backgrounds. She participated in the campaign to stop the
deportation of Laibar Singh, a paralyzed Punjabi refugee; the Let them Free, Let them Stay campaign for incarcerated
Tamil refugee claimants aboard the
MV Ocean Lady and
MV Sun Sea; and the Campaign to Stop Secret Trials, calling for the abolition of
security certificates. Together with NOII-Vancouver, Walia organizes the Annual Community March Against Racism, which was initiated in 2008. She also collectively organized a No One Is Illegal, Canada Is Illegal contingent as part the 2010 No Olympics On Stolen Native Land convergence in Vancouver. In January 2014, Walia and NOII-Vancouver demanded an
inquest into the death of Lucia Vega Jimenez, an
undocumented Mexican refugee who lived and worked in Vancouver, who died in
Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) custody four weeks after being detained. Other migrant justice and civil liberties groups and more than 7,500 petition signers also called for an inquest, and led to several jury recommendations and an overhaul of CBSA detention practices. In view of the
Metro Vancouver Transit Police's involvement in Jimenez's incarceration, Walia co-founded the Transportation Not Deportation campaign, which brought about the end of a
memorandum of understanding between Transit Police and the CBSA. Transportation Not Deportation was awarded the 2016 Liberty Award for Community Activism by the
BC Civil Liberties Association. After
Donald Trump's election and signing of
Executive Order 13769 on January 27, 2017, to establish "extreme vetting" procedures for refugees and immigrants attempting to enter the United States, Walia reported a greater volume of incoming calls to NOII from undocumented migrants in the US seeking to
claim asylum in Canada. She has stated that, despite many government-sponsored messages that Canada is welcoming to refugees, the
Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) prevents those who reach the Canadian border via the US from claiming refugee status. NOII has urged the
Trudeau government to repeal the STCA, although the agreement currently remains in effect.
Women's Memorial March For over a decade, Walia has worked with the February 14th
Women's Memorial March Committee, founded in 1992 following the murder of a woman on Powell Street in Vancouver. Led largely by Indigenous women, the committee organizes the annual February 14 Women's Memorial March for women who have died in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside (DTES). A 20-year history of the Women's Memorial March is documented in a 2011 short film co-directed by Walia and Alejandro Zuluaga, titled
Survival, Strength, Sisterhood: Power of Women in the Downtown Eastside. The film presents footage of recent and previous marches and centres the voices of women in the DTES, including members of the Downtown Eastside Power of Women Group, who developed the concept for the film. With their film, Walia and Zuluaga seek to "debunk the
sensationalism surrounding a neighbourhood deeply misunderstood, and celebrate the complex and diverse realities of women organizing for justice." The centre offers support through daily drop-in and emergency shelters, as well as food, advocacy, counselling, and housing outreach services. POW organizes weekly community discussions and actions with the goal of identifying, resisting, and transforming rhetoric and policies that marginalize women. POW is upheld by leadership and involvement of women most affected by systemic injustice, particularly homelessness, abuse, and child apprehension; the group's work, Walia says, is therefore "rooted in the experiences and voices of residents of the DTES." Walia and the Power of Women group have pressured the
Vancouver Police Department to investigate and act on cases of missing and murdered women. They are also involved in numerous housing justice campaigns and coalitions, including the Downtown Eastside Is Not for Developers Coalition. The year 2006 marked the beginning of POW's Annual Women's Housing March for safe and affordable housing for low-income residents of the DTES.
Olympic Resistance Network Walia was active in the Olympic Resistance Network (ORN), which instigated several anti-Olympic actions and demonstrations during the
2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. The actions were in response to growing homelessness rates of low-income residents in the DTES and cuts to social programs due to
urban gentrification in the build-up to the games. The Women's Memorial March Committee and Power of Women group also resisted the Games by refusing to cancel or reroute the annual February 14 Women's Memorial March During the latter event, held on February 15, 2010, a
tent city known as the Olympic Tent Village was assembled on a lot owned by real estate developer Concord Pacific, which functioned as a parking lot during the Olympics. Following an anti-Olympic demonstration on February 13, 2010, during which
black bloc tactics were employed and windows of the
Hudson's Bay Company (an Olympic sponsor) in Downtown Vancouver were smashed, Walia defended the protestors, stating that several of them are "devoted activists who support marginalized communities" and adopt "a range of tactics to do so." She also expressed that wearing masks during protests "is a reasonable precaution in light of
mass surveillance practices" and that black bloc tactics can "increase the effectiveness of less direct actions such as the February 14th Women's Memorial March."
Arrests Along with two other women, Walia was arrested on October 4, 2010, a National Day of Action for
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, after occupying a Vancouver police station to demand an investigation into the death of Ashley Machiskinic. The three detained women were released the following day. == Controversies ==