OCASI Executive Director Debbie Douglas appeared as a guest panelist on TVO's ‘The Agenda' hosted by Steve Paikin, on January 15, 2015. The show explored changes resulting from the introduction of the new Express Entry immigration system earlier this year, and what they mean for Canada and Ontario.
The Positive Spaces Initiative (PSI), a project of the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI), is on a search to identify regional Champions! A Champion is a person who is actively engaged in their community, working for the inclusion and human rights of LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, two-spirit, queer, questioning, asexual, intersex, pansexual, genderqueer, etc.) immigrants and refugees.
The federal government is increasing citizenship processing fees by $230 for applications received after January 1, 2015 – an increase of more than 40%. The Right of Citizenship fee is to remain unchanged at $100.
With the increase, the new citizenship application fees will be a total of $630.
December 18, 2014/Toronto – OCASI is calling on the Government of Canada to mark International Migrants Day 2014 by adopting and ratifying the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.
The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on December 18, 1990 and in 2000 proclaimed 18 December as International Migrants Day.