The board and staff of OCASI - Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants is delighted to congratulate Debbie Douglas, Executive Director, on being awarded the Race Relations Award by the Urban Alliance on Race Relations (UARR). Debbie was honoured along with other Award recipients at the UARR 39th Anniversary and 2014 Awards Dinner held in Toronto on Thursday September 18, 2014. She was nominated by Hon. Jean Augustine, Fairness Commissioner (Ontario).
Debbie Douglas is an active feminist and anti-racism activist. She is the Executive Director of the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants where she leads a sector of more than 230 agencies concerned with immigrant and refugee integration and social and economic inclusion. In the late 1980’s and 1990’s she was active in the leadership of Ontario’s first shelter geared to abused immigrant women; was also an advocate for Employment Equity and worked to establish anti-discriminatory systems and practices in public institutions with a focus on the intersection of identities. Debbie serves on numerous boards including the Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement, Women’s College Hospital, and co-chairs the City of Toronto’s Newcomer Leadership Table. She is the former co-chair of the National Working Group on Immigration and Settlement at the Canadian Council for Refugees. In 2004 she received the YWCA Toronto Women of Distinction Award.
A big, warm and hearty congratulations to Debbie, and congratulations to Award recipients Lloyd McKell, Enzo DiMatteo and Jim Rankin.