Colour of Poverty-Colour of Change (COP-COC) welcomes the launch of the Anti-Racism Strategy by the Ontario Government, which signals that racism is real, and urgently needs to be addressed in this province.

Statement by OCASI – Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants

OCASI collaborated with Colour of Poverty Campaign/Colour of Change Network (COP-COC), Metro Toronto Chinese & South East Asian Legal Clinic (MTCSALC) and South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario (SALCO) on a Joint Submission to the Committee on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). The submission was prepared with respect to the Committee's upcoming review of Canada at its 65th Session (24 Oct 2016 - 18 Nov 2016).

The Joint Submission highlighted the following concerns:

For Immediate Release

Racialized Community Coalition Launches Legislative Framework for the Ontario Anti-Racism Directorate

October 4, 2016 / Toronto / On this day of Sisters in Spirit Vigils held across the country to honour missing and murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Colour of Poverty - Colour of Change (COP – COC) launched a legislative framework that it has proposed to the Ontario Government, in order to support and strengthen the mandate of the Anti-Racism Directorate (ARD).

Colour of Poverty - Colour of Change ( July 11, 2016 ) - The Government of Ontario has committed to creating an Anti-Racism Directorate (ARD). It is now engaging in a series of community dialogues with the public to provide feedback on the ARD’s mandate, and identify priority areas of the directorate’s work, to apply an anti-racism perspective to all government policies, practices, programs and services.

Colour of Poverty - Colour of Change on Tuesday October 4, 2016, launched a legislative framework that it has proposed to the Ontario Government, in order to support and strengthen the mandate of the Anti-Racism Directorate (ARD). Read below for the proposed draft legislation, or scroll down for the document in PDF format.

An Act respecting Anti-Racism in Ontario

Preamble

Media Advisory: Community Organizations Push Ontario Government to Adopt Anti-Racism Legislative Framework

TORONTO, ON--(September 30, 2016) - A coalition of community organizations will be launching a proposed legislative framework for the newly established Anti-Racism Directorate in Ontario at a press conference on Tuesday, October 4, 2016 at 11 a.m. at the office of TAIBU Community Health Center, 27 Tapscott Rd #1, Scarborough, Ontario.

[La version française se trouve plus loin]

Call for Regularization of Immigration Status in Canada

A countless number of residents are without immigration status in Canada. The Canadian immigration and refugee system has clearly failed the many people who have become or been made to be undocumented, for a multitude of reasons.

The Honorable Ralph Goodale
Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
269 Laurier Avenue West
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0P8 Canada

July 15, 2016

Dear Minister Goodale,

Re: Immigration Detainees on Hunger Strike

OCASI – Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants is writing to ask that you meet with the more than 60 immigration detainees presently on hunger strike at two Ontario prisons.