Karl Gardner’s Organizing Sanctuary: Migrant Justice and Abolitionist Activism in Canadian Cities examines key questions surrounding the significance of sanctuary initiatives to safeguard migrants in Canadian contexts. In the current body of literature, Canadian sanctuary cities remain underexamined in comparison with the United States, and it is this dearth of research that underpins the book’s central purpose which aims to provide a comprehensive analysis of sanctuary efforts in Canada. To address this gap, Organizing Sanctuary is structured into four core sections that enable Gardner to provide a brief, yet effective, historical account of sanctuary in Canada before interrogating contemporary sanctuary initiatives across Canada and the theoretical foundations that inform them. Across these chapters, and in addressing this research gap, Gardner advances a three-pronged argument that is relevant within and beyond the Canadian context.

Organizing Sanctuary skillfully argues that sanctuary must not be understood as a static status conferred upon cities, rather sanctuary is a continuously contested process that must be examined within the context in which it operates. Gardner’s book takes no interest in discerning which Canadian cities are “deserving” of the “sanctuary city” designation, instead he urges readers to look beyond this dichotomous framing and critically engage with the contexts where sanctuary is being actively pursued. Looking to Canadian cities that have been designated the title, such as Toronto, Gardner highlights the contradictory practices of government actors in protecting migrants to exemplify that the struggle for sanctuary remains an ongoing process despite the designation while underscoring the role of the sanctuary networks in sustaining and expanding sanctuary efforts. This leads Gardner to establish his second claim and persuasively argue that these sanctuary networks, comprised of activists, service providers and social movements, are indispensable to the continuation of sanctuary initiatives. Considered from this perspective, these efforts are contingent upon the continuous contributions of civil society actors and those willing to circumvent Canadian immigration regulations as opposed to government-led efforts. To illustrate, Gardner compellingly draws upon the efforts of No One Is Illegal-Toronto in developing education material surrounding migrant right, education which is not provided in an accessible manner by the government. The author’s final, and most significant claim, is that sanctuary must be radically reconceptualized in line with abolitionist, No Borders and decolonial movements in order to continue being a productive means to protect migrants who exist in a political landscape, which is increasingly defined by extremism.

Drawing on Naomi Paik, Gardner convincingly advocates for an abolitionist approach to sanctuary that “resists sanctuary co-optation by the state and restores its roots as a collective challenge to sovereign authority” (24–5). To demonstrate this central claim, Gardner divides Organizing Sanctuary into four chapters that explore present and historical approaches to sanctuary initiatives in Canada and their limitations. The first section of the book provides a historical overview of sanctuary initiatives in Canada, which is intimately related to the Catholic Church, before Gardner moves on to demonstrate how sanctuary efforts have expanded beyond religious institutions. In illustrating this evolution, Gardner devotes the following two chapters to examining the dominant approaches deployed by current Canadian sanctuary networks: Sanctuary from Above and Sanctuary from Below. The former remains committed to pursuing sanctuary through attempts to influence local governments and public institutions whereas the latter is primarily focused on working alongside service providers, activist and migrants to establish sanctuary spaces. While these two approaches do not necessarily operate independently from one another, Gardner convincingly argues the need to go beyond such approaches. The abolitionist approach offered by Gardner is premised upon radical social change and aims to go beyond attempts to merely oppose systems of oppression and, instead, create entirely new ways of being. Gardner effectively advocates for an approach to sanctuary that is intimately attuned to structural problems, oriented toward the dismantling of these structures, and which presents alternatives to such structures that are founded on ideas of collective freedom. From this position, sanctuary initiatives cannot solely be focused on migrant justice, they must be informed by Black liberation, decolonial movements and other movements centered upon self-determination. For Gardner, migrant justice cannot be meaningfully separated from other forms of injustice that take place on and beyond Canadian soil. Thus, sanctuary efforts must incorporate a comprehensive and transformative approach to remain effective.

As the pioneering work covering contemporary sanctuary efforts in Canadian cities, Gardner provides readers with a thought-provoking and theoretically innovative contribution that challenges prevailing approaches to sanctuary. Organizing Sanctuary reframes how sanctuary is understood and pursued both within and beyond academic discourses. Thus, it is a valuable resource for academics interested in social justice issues, as well as those working on-the-ground, such as service providers and migrants themselves. Gardner productively moves beyond a policy-only focus to demonstrate the complexity of sanctuary initiatives and the significance these efforts have beyond the institutional realm that encourages readers to adopt a broader, more systemic approach to migrant justice. While Gardner is highly conscious of the context in which he is writing as he meaningfully and explicitly interweaves Black liberation and decolonial movements into his theses on the abolitionist approach, future scholarship building upon his work may benefit from drawing upon Critical Disability Studies, Queer Studies and Feminist Scholarship. The abolitionist approach offered by Gardner, while effective, could be strengthened by a deliberate engagement with concepts central to these fields that are deeply connected to broader structural issues which the abolitionist approach aims to dismantle. Ableism, heteronormativity, and patriarchy continue to inform Canadian society as well as the experiences of migrants within Canadian cities. Yet, these concepts are notably absent from Gardner’s analysis of sanctuary thereby creating a gap to be filled in future works. Despite the absence of these concepts in Organizing Sanctuary, Gardner’s book is a vital and insightful contribution that encourages readers to think deeply about migrant justice, its connections to broader structural issues, and the urgent need to build radical sanctuaries everywhere, for everyone.