Members of Black Lives Matter (BLM) Toronto, the activist group protesting black racism, blocked the busy Yonge and Bloor intersection for about 20 minutes during morning rush hour on Tuesday to protest the deportation of Beverly Braham, a 38-year old Jamaican woman.

Protestors locked arms, forming a human wall and  holding signs and chanting “let Beverley stay ” as she sat at a small table with her two month old Canadian-born son and  her husband, a Canadian citizen.

Braham said she was told she had to leave Canada by today.

All I’m asking is to stay with my family. That’s all I want. I don’t want them to separate us. I’m begging them,” said Braham who has a pending sponsorship application.

“A sponsorship application is supposed to take a maximum of 12 months. Her application has already been there for 11 months. She needs to be able to stay until that process is heard,” said a representative from the group End Immigration Detention Network.

Braham said that on September 6 last, she, along with her son and her husband, went to see an official  from Canada Border Service Agency (CBSA).

She said her husband was made to leave the room and she  and her child were kept in detention for nearly three full days.

She said she was released from detention by a court order.

A representative from BLM Toronto said ” we are in support of black families and we believe that black immigrant lives matter.

” We also know that this process of breaking up black families has been happening since slave labour camps, where they sold members of our families up and down the river. This is no different. They’re separating a mother from her husband and child. This is completely unacceptable and we demand that she be allowed to stay in Canada.”

Leroi Newbold, co-founder of BLM Toronto, said in a statement that Braham ” should be building her family here and  enjoying her new child.

“Instead, she has been in the fight for her life, and that of her baby, and has faced inhumane detention with her tiny infant. This is not just. We are here to say enough is enough. Let Beverly stay.”