OCASI latest articles
Thoughts on Things
February 2023 / Toronto
The new year dawned with me in a security line heading out of Kenya’s international airport in Nairobi. It was my first sojourn to East Africa and I marveled at the majority of white faces around me. Judging from the immigration control lines which they joined, many are representatives of international NGOs including UN Agencies or returning spouses of Black Kenyan migrants to Europe and North America.
OCASI Welcomes Special Representative on Combating Islamophobia
February 6, 2023 / Toronto
OCASI – Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants welcomes the appointment of Amira Elghawaby as Special Representative on Combating Islamophobia, the first in Canada.
Take The Survey On Bill 23: Ontario's Greenbelt and Affordable Housing
Toronto / January 2023
Communities across Ontario, including community groups, affordable housing groups, environmental groups and municipalities are speaking out against the removal of protected environmentally sensitive lands from the Greenbelt through the passage of Bill 23, More Homes Built Faster Act.
A New Deal for the Immigrant and Refugee Serving Sector
January 2023 / Toronto
It is the fourth day of Kwanzaa as I sit down to write this first blog of the new year, three days before the first day of 2023. Kwanzaa is a Pan-African diasporic holiday celebration created in 1966 by African-American Maulana Ron Karenga. It celebrates history, community, family and culture. And the seven principles celebrated over seven days (December 26th to January 1st) are grounded in the Swahili language, one of the most commonly spoken African languages across the continent.