Your silence will not protect you
February 2018
"Your silence will not protect you" - Audre Lorde
OCASI latest articles
OCASI welcomes Heritage Committee report on systemic racism and Islamophobia
Policy:
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.
In the Field Newsletter Volume 66
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We begin the year in a celebratory and anticipatory mood in Ontario as we welcome the proclamation of Ontario’s Immigration Act on January 1, 2018 which received Royal Assent in May, 2015. The legislation “positions Ontario as a full partner in immigration with the federal government, with an enhanced role in immigration selection aimed at attracting more economic immigrants”, says the recently released 2017 progress report, Our Foundation for Tomorrow, Ontario’s Immigration Strategy.
In the Field Newsletter Volume 65
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The long awaited 2016 census on immigration and the ethno-racial diversity of Canada has been released. The numbers tell an exciting story of a Canada becoming increasingly racially diverse, a provincial nominee program regime that is meeting its overarching goal of destining immigrants (including refugees) away from the three major immigration hubs of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, and the promise of younger immigrant and Indigenous populations. The shift in immigration numbers away from Ontario and British Columbia in the five years prior to 2016 also speak to the economic realities of the past decade where (other than the last two to three years) the extractive industries of Alberta and Saskatchewan attracted workers from the rest of Canada, including new immigrants.Farewell speech at OCASI Annual General Meeting by Ibrahim Absiye, President of OCASI.
In the Field Newsletter Volume 64
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My fellow members of this Council, associate members and other colleagues, I want to take a few minutes of your time to talk about my feelings today about who we are as a sector. And let me begin with my own personal experience.
In the Field Newsletter Volume 63
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It has been a rough period for the estimated 800,000 "Dreamers" in the U.S. — young people who availed themselves of the protections of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program over the past few years. DACA was implemented to give certain young, undocumented migrants, who were brought to the U.S. as minors, temporary protection from deportation action as well as the ability to work legally while in the States.