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.
From funding cuts to the dismantling of progressive policies and practices grounded in decolonial and antiracist beliefs of equitable opportunities and outcomes for all who call Canada home, our sector and the broader Care sector is under attack.
We have welcomed new communities from across the globe as the survivors of wars fought for land, and against harmful resource extraction and ideological supremacy. From Sudan, Kashmir and Congo; to Gaza and Ukraine and other parts of the world, people are displaced daily, in search of safety and a sense of home.
This welcome has not been equitable. We stood tall as a country as we opened our homes and hearts to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing war. This was an example of us a nation being our best selves.
Yet, those of us who are advocates continue to fight to keep open the doors of welcome for those needing to escape the genocide of Gaza, the starvation and violence of South Sudan and the decades long rape and violence of wars in Congo. Kashmir has been an after thought, Rohingya refugees forgotten, and many Afghans remain stranded in Pakistan unable to find a path to Canada. Our humanitarian programs seem to be predicated on race, skin colour and faith; sexuality and gender identity.
As the broad non-profit sector – especially the women/feminist movement, community service agencies and other civil society organizations concerned with issues of equity, decolonialism, antiracism and civil and political rights -brace for the details of the expected federal budget early in November, we are reminding ourselves that we shift the arc of justice only when we build broad social movements and work in solidarity with each other. It is about the practice of Ubuntu and truly believing that until ‘all of us are free, none of us are free’.
It is politically reassuring to know that this solidarity work is being actioned by networks like the Feminist Influence Group (FIG) who are committed to ensuring the continuation of funding and political access for women and gender diverse people across the country and internationally. To know that the Network for the Advancement of Black Communities is moving from strength to strength, championing the cause of African Canadian communities and the organizations that provide support.
The establishment of the National Newcomer Collective for Truth and Reconciliation is timely and necessary. Our immigrant and refugee serving sector has much to learn from First Nations, Inuit and Metis peoples. The communities we serve, especially those from the geopolitical south including Indigenous peoples, have much in common with First Peoples as they share a history and contemporary reality of neocolonialist displacement, land theft and cultural genocide. Supporting and advocating for the implementation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission commitments, the recommendations of the MMIWG report and Land Back demands are ways we can demonstrate solidarity. Orange Shirt Day each year, is a reminder of the work still to be done in truth telling of the effects of settler colonialism on the people on whose lands we live, love, work and pray.
Our sector saves lives. We must preserve this ecosystem of professional and personal support that we have built. We must harness our collective vision of a sector where practitioners are honored with decent wages and benefits while they in turn support newer arrivals to reach their full potential.
We must move away from competition and towards collaboration, knowing that our collective survival is only assured when we are singing in harmony even if not from the same hymnal.
I look forward to our discussions and to being part of these few days of joyous collective learning and collaboration as we continue to walk in solidarity with each other. See you at the OCASI Conference!
In Solidarity,
dd