The weather outside as I write this belies the fact that it is mid-March and we are less than a week away from the official start of Spring. But the frigid cold temperatures we have experienced in the past week did not deter the tens of thousands of women, children and male and non-binary allies who showed up to celebrate and protest across the province as we observed International Women’s Day.
Recovery during Immigration and Settlement (RISE) program by Madison Community Services provides a range of services to address mental health and settlement challenges for newcomers. All RISE clients come from war-torn countries where they have experienced significant trauma and persecution. RISE works in partnership with other community organizations serving newcomers. Services provided in English and certain other languages.
Organizing Against Violence Against Women in an Age of Racism and Xenophobia - Join us for an live, online, interactive event to mark International Women’s Day and International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, on Wednesday March 22, from 2pm to 3pm. Featuring Rania El Mugammar and Rupaleem Bhuyan.
OCASI is commemorating April 4 - Refugee Rights Day by collaborating with Toronto community groups to organize a series of events over the entire month of April. The events commemorate the 1985 Supreme Court decision, the ‘Singh Decision” recognizing that refugee claimants have fundamental rights in Canada.
The multilingual website, InMyLanguage.Org, will be taken offline on March 24, 2017 at 5pm due to lack of funding. Until that time, you can download and save documents from InMyLanguage.Org. After March 24, you can access multilingual information in Settlement.Org’s Translated Information section. The website was administered by OCASI.
The Immigrant and Refugee Communities Neighbours Friends and Families (IRCNFF) Campaign has recruited and trained 12 Peer Champions from newcomer communities across Ontario. For next year, these Champions will be holding events in their communities to raise awareness and promote action on domestic violence against women. You may hear from one of them at your agency!
“Telling our stories: Immigrant women’s resilience” / « Récits d'immigrantes résiliente » a bilingual graphic novel from OCASI and MOFIF, was launched this month in celebration of International Women’s Day. The novel featuring stories by immigrant women on surviving rape and sexual abuse, offers support to immigrant women as part of the public education campaign to prevent sexual violence in Ontario.
Not Just Numbers: Representation in the Canadian Census - this interactive, mystery game invites the public to uncover the life stories behind Toronto based census entries from immigrants. The event engages the public in a dialogue around the role of the census. Who does it serve? Can we find evidence of resistance? How has the state dealt with silences and self-identification?
On April 4 - Refugee Rights Day, join the CCR campaign on family reunification. Call for an end to long processing times for refugees and live-in caregivers, and for those in regions such as Africa. Call for an end to the excluded family member rule in immigration law, which unfairly denies some families the right to reunification.
METRAC launched their upgraded website, the Ontario Women’s Justice Network (OWJN), with legal information for women affected by violence. The website now has a new look and additional features.
Law students research on the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) concludes that Canada’s continued participation in the STCA violates our international obligations. The research is the outcome of collaborative work from 22 Canadian law schools.
More and more Canadians are feeling the impact of inequality in their daily lives. This year, the AFB proposes a federal budget that takes decisive action on what matters to Canadians: creating jobs, reducing income inequality, lowering poverty levels, closing unfair and expensive tax loopholes, and getting the economy moving. OCASI contributed to the chapter on immigration.
