March 8, 2018/Toronto – Today, on International Women’s Day 2018, OCASI – Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants celebrates the strength, vision and creativity of our sisters who work and lead in Ontario’s immigrant and refugee-serving sector and allied sectors.
We celebrate the gains we have made in raising awareness and educating about violence against refugee and immigrant women and women with precarious immigration status.
Toronto/February 7, 2018 – OCASI – Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants welcomes recommendations by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage to update and reinstate Canada’s Action Plan Against Racism (CAPAR), and tackle systemic racism and Islamophobia.
November 16, 2017 - OCASI - Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants, together with Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic (CSALC) and South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario (SALCO) made a joint submission to the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration, for their Study on Federal Government Policies and Guidelines Regarding Medical Inadmissibility of Immigrants.
Toronto / October 31, 2017 / - OCASI welcomes the release of immigration and ethocultural diversity data by Statistics Canada on October 25, 2017. Thanks to the reinstatement of the mandatory long-form Census (after a ten year interruption) we once again have the much-needed demographic and economic information about the lives of immigrant and racialized residents. The data highlights the need for government action on several OCASI priorities such as:
Media Release
Geneva / August 15, 2017 / - Colour of Poverty – Colour of Change (COP-COC) and several of its co-founding members were successful in having Canada vigorously questioned on its record on addressing racial discrimination by a UN human rights Committee at its review of Canada today in Geneva.
The civil society groups were in attendance at Canada’s review by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD).
Joint Submission to the 93rd Session of the Committee for the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) – Review of Canada August 2017
By: Colour of Poverty – Colour of Change, Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic, Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants and South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario. (CSALC, OCASI and SALCO are founding Steering Committee members of Colour of Poverty - Colour of Change)
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Joint NGO statement in advance of Canada’s examination by UN CERD Committee
In June 2017, the Ontario government proposed changes to Ontario employment and labour laws. The government introduced Bill 148 (2017), An Act to amend the Employment Standards Act, 2000 and the Labour Relations Act, 1995.
OCASI welcomes Bill 148 and its potential to strengthen existing protections for immigrant, refugee and migrant workers as well as all other Ontario workers who are disadvantaged and excluded from basic protections.
June 21, 2017/ Toronto
OCASI - Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants acknowledges the traditional territories of the peoples of Turtle Island and thanks Indigenous peoples for allowing us to settle on these lands. We affirm our commitment to the 94 Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission as the collective voice for Ontario’s immigrant and refugee-serving sector, and within our organization and in our governance.
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