Legislation & Public Policies

Toronto / April 12, 2024

Dear Prime Minister and Minister Miller,

Re: Immigration Status Regularization - Permanent Residence For All

OCASI – Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants calls on you to act urgently on your government’s longstanding, and often-repeated commitment to introduce an immigration status regularization program, that would allow those living precariously in Canada to become permanent residents.

Toronto / November 7, 2023

Participatory Policy-making with Refugee Claimants in the City of Toronto was researched and written for OCASI by Sharmarke Dubow, MPP Candidate at the University of Oxford. Mr. Dubow prepared the report as part of the 2023 Master of Public Policy summer placement at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford.

OCASI made a written submission to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, for the pre-budget consultations in advance of the 2024 federal budget.

September 16, 2022 / Toronto - OCASI wrote to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Sean Fraser to call for an immigration status regularization program that will leave no one behind. Read our letter below:

-----

The Right Honourable Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2
Justin.Trudeau@parl.gc.ca pm@pm.gc.ca

April 2022 / Toronto

Remove the term “visible minority”, use the term “racialized people” as a designated group and remove citizenship status discrimination. These are some of the recommendations we made in a joint submission to the Federal Employment Equity Act Review Task Force. Read the joint submission by Colour of Poverty – Colour of Change, South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario and OCASI.

August 2021 / Toronto

OCASI made a written submission to the Standing Committee on Finance for pre-budget consultations on the 2022 Federal Budget.

OCASI made the following recommendations:

Toronto / November18, 2021

OCASI made a written submission to the Standing Committee on Social Policy on Bill 27: Working for Workers Act, 2021.

The Bill proposes certain changes that are intended to address exploitation and abuse by recruiters. It is not certain if these proposals will be effective. Other proposals in the Bill have the potential to harm workers.

Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) has issued a Policy Statement on COVID-19 vaccine mandates and proof of vaccine certificates.

Toronto / July 28, 2021

OCASI made submissions to Ontario's Task Force on Women and the Economy for its consultation on women’s participation in the economy and Ontario’s workforce.