On December 15, 2016, Mr. Soleiman Faqiri, a 30 year old man with schizophrenia, who was caged in a segregation unit, died after being brutally restrained, beaten, shackled and pepper sprayed by at least six armed guards. OCASI joins Black Legal Action Centre (BLAC) and others in a joint statement. We are in solidarity with Mr. Faqiri's family and others, who are the subjects of egregious state violence.
Senior Poverty & Inequity: The Toronto Experience Report
Over 90% of Indigenous peoples 55 and older in Toronto experience poverty. Immigrant seniors are twice as likely to live in poverty than non-immigrant seniors, and racialized seniors are twice as likely to live in poverty than non-racialized seniors. These are some of the disturbing findings in a new report from Social Planning Toronto and Well Living House.
We have some exciting announcements about the OCASI Executive Directors’ Forum including new conference dates! The 2020 ED Forum, “Transformation: Race, Recovery and Belonging” will be held virtually on October 27-29, 2020. You can expect three days of interactive policy dialogue and discussion with sector leaders from across Ontario.
Want your content on the community to be highlighted? Let the SettleNet.org team know before the 3rd Thursday of each month when the newsletter is sent.
Power At Your Fingertips
Need to streamline client information for your agency? Generate reports quickly and easily? Meet last-minute funder changes in reporting? Discover how by watching the OCMS video or sign up for a webinar. OCASI Client Management System was developed by the sector for the sector, and is exclusively user-fee supported. Contact Elena Trapeznikova elena@ocasi.org or (416) 322-4950 ext. 241
Positive Spaces Initiative Champions Recruited
Positive Spaces Initiative is excited to share the selection of dynamic and fierce Champions for this year. They bring a vast knowledge of experiences (lived and learned), and work within their communities (abroad or here). They represent 6 regions of Ontario. We are thrilled to work with them on building capacity within their communities.
OCASI provided a written submission to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance for its pre-budget consultations. The OCASI submission called for a revamp of the immigration and refugee system to make the systems fair and more accessible. OCASI also made recommendations to advance racial equity and eliminate racial discrimination.
COVID-19 has changed how governments work. Measures by the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB), Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) have all impacted refugee claimants, refugees, immigrants and people with precarious immigration status. This is a recording of a webinar presented by Francisco Rico-Martinez, Co-director of FCJ Refugee Centre on April 12, 2020.
Do you work on the frontlines at an OCASI member agency? Want to receive updates directly about training and professional development opportunities, connect with your peers at OCASI member agencies across Ontario, share information, ask and answer questions and more? Join the OCASI frontline email list. Questions? Contact policyevents@ocasi.org
Canadian Council for Refugees Working Group Meetings
Do you want to be part of efforts to promote rights for refugees? Want to participate in in-depth discussions on pressing issues affecting refugees and immigrants in Canada? Looking for an opportunity to share information and strategies with others from across Canada?
Participate in the Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR) Working Group Meetings on 8-10 September 2020.
Urban Alliance on Race Relations will hold the Summit on September 28 - October 2, 2020, to bring together advocates from diverse fields to strategize collectively and to make meaningful connections. The Summit will also be an excellent opportunity to network with like-minded community partners, and will open up avenues for future collaboration.
Statistics Canada invites you to participate in a crowdsourcing initiative to collect data on how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting people’s experiences of discrimination. This online questionnaire is accessible from August 4 to 17, 2020 and Statistics Canada is aiming to publish the results in late August.
Statistique Canada vous inviter à participer à une collecte de données, réalisée au moyen de l’approche participative (crowdsourcing), sur la façon dont la pandémie de COVID-19 a influencé l’expérience de la discrimination. Ce questionnaire en ligne est accessible du 4 au 17 août 2020 et Statistique Canada visera à publier les résultats à la fin d’août.
Calling all spoken word artists ages 18-34! The Feminist and Women’s Movement Action Plan (fwMAP) joins our sisters worldwide in celebration of the 10th anniversary of UN Women in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Submit videos of you performing your original feminist poetry by 28 August, 2020. We will publish winners in the “Thank You UN” online book.
The Ontario Trillium Foundation has introduced the one-time Resilient Communities Fund to invest in the recovery and rebuilding efforts of the non-profit sector impacted by COVID-19
Application Deadlines: September 2, 2020 at 5 pm ET. and December 2, 2020 at 5 pm ET. Visit the Resilient Communities Fund resource page to learn more about the fund and how to apply.
Human Trafficking Related CFP – Public Safety Canada
Public Safety Canada has launched a call for proposals for human trafficking related initiatives under Stream A of the department’s Contribution Program to Combat Serious and Organized Crime (CPCSOC). Proposals can be submitted for two separate initiatives, Community-Based Empowerment Projects and Pilot Projects for At-Risk Youth. Submission deadline is 11:59pm (PST) on September 4, 2020.
Women and Gender Equality Canada (WAGE) has launched a call for proposals from organizations that work to prevent and address human trafficking, to develop and implement promising practices to enhance empowerment supports for at-risk populations and survivors of human trafficking.
Community Foundations Canada will open the applications portal for the second round of Investment Readiness Program (IRP) funding on September 8, 2020. The IRP’s goal is to help social enterprises move towards being investment-ready. Funding can be used to research, launch, design, measure and scale up your social enterprise and move it towards being able to accept investment.
COVID-19, Migration and the Canadian Immigration system: Dimension, Impact and Resilience is a new report by Building Migrant Resilience in Cities (BRMC). The report identifies the many ways that the COVID-19 pandemic has been affecting migration, borders, immigrant populations, and Canada's immigration and settlement system between March 2020 and June 2020.
Decent Work and Health Network will release a major report on paid sick days on August 19th. Drawing on worker interviews, health provider surveys and the latest medical evidence, the report will outline best-practice policy guidelines for paid sick days across Canada during the pandemic and beyond. Register to receive the report as soon as it is launched.
The Ontario Human Rights Commission released the second interim report in the its inquiry into racial profiling and racial discrimination of Black persons by the Toronto Police Service. The report, A Disparate Impact confirms that Black people are more likely than others to be arrested, charged, over-charged, struck, shot or killed by Toronto police.
This new report from UFCW Canada calls for urgent changes to protect the health, safety, and rights of tens of thousands of migrant agricultural workers. The workers are essential to Canada’s food supply. But as we learned during the pandemic, they are more vulnerable than Canadian workers to exploitation, health risks, and employer reprisal.
The Alternative Federal Budget (AFB) Recovery Plan from Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives is an offshoot of the Alternative Federal Budget project, now in its 25th year. The project is a collaboration among organizations and researchers from a variety of sectors, populations, and areas of expertise. OCASI co-authored chapters on Immigration and on Racial Equality.
A new report provides an in-depth look into loss of community infrastructure due to the closures of faith buildings in Ontario. The report is based on new data gathered through surveys of existing nonprofit organizations and groups that make use of faith-building space. Report was released in July 2020 by Faith & the Common Good, a national, interfaith charitable network.
