Toronto / October 2025
Solidarity is our watch word this year at the Council. And it’s mirrored in the theme of this year’s annual conference- Solidarity in Vision and Action. The theme speaks to the need for us to regroup as a sector as we face the headwinds of austerity agendas that threaten the foundational integrity of our sector organizations.
Toronto / August 2025
Our Refugee Determination system is in crisis with significant backlogs. Our affordable housing crisis continues and the two together have created a perfect storm. We are seeing it manifested on the streets and in the emergency shelters of large urban centres in Ontario like Ottawa and the Greater Toronto (Peel, York, Durham) and Hamilton region.
La version française est ci-dessous.
The federal government’s Bill C-2, the “Strong Borders Act” proposes sweeping legislative changes that will erode the rights of refugee claimants and migrants.
Watch OCASI’s webinar on Bill C-2, held on September 5 2025 - on YouTube.
OCASI has submitted 11 strategic recommendations to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance to the Committee’s annual pre-budget consultations
1. Invest adequately, appropriately and equitably in settlement services and language training for all refugees and migrants, regardless of immigration status. – say something about potential cuts – Include investment in Francophone settlement outside Quebec.
Toronto / August 2025
I sit to write this a few hours after returning home from Toronto’s symbolic ride on the freedom train- a remembering of the underground railroad- the network of ancestors and allies that brought many out of enslavement in the US to Ontario and other Canadian sites. It is symbolic of Nanny and the other grandmothers and grandfathers who led the maroons and their refusal of and resistance to enslavement.
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