For Immediate Release

Racialized Community Coalition Launches Legislative Framework for the Ontario Anti-Racism Directorate

October 4, 2016 / Toronto / On this day of Sisters in Spirit Vigils held across the country to honour missing and murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Colour of Poverty - Colour of Change (COP – COC) launched a legislative framework that it has proposed to the Ontario Government, in order to support and strengthen the mandate of the Anti-Racism Directorate (ARD).

Colour of Poverty - Colour of Change ( July 11, 2016 ) - The Government of Ontario has committed to creating an Anti-Racism Directorate (ARD). It is now engaging in a series of community dialogues with the public to provide feedback on the ARD’s mandate, and identify priority areas of the directorate’s work, to apply an anti-racism perspective to all government policies, practices, programs and services.

Colour of Poverty - Colour of Change on Tuesday October 4, 2016, launched a legislative framework that it has proposed to the Ontario Government, in order to support and strengthen the mandate of the Anti-Racism Directorate (ARD). Read below for the proposed draft legislation, or scroll down for the document in PDF format.

An Act respecting Anti-Racism in Ontario

Preamble

Media Advisory: Community Organizations Push Ontario Government to Adopt Anti-Racism Legislative Framework

TORONTO, ON--(September 30, 2016) - A coalition of community organizations will be launching a proposed legislative framework for the newly established Anti-Racism Directorate in Ontario at a press conference on Tuesday, October 4, 2016 at 11 a.m. at the office of TAIBU Community Health Center, 27 Tapscott Rd #1, Scarborough, Ontario.

[La version française se trouve plus loin]

Call for Regularization of Immigration Status in Canada

A countless number of residents are without immigration status in Canada. The Canadian immigration and refugee system has clearly failed the many people who have become or been made to be undocumented, for a multitude of reasons.

The Honorable Ralph Goodale
Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
269 Laurier Avenue West
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0P8 Canada

July 15, 2016

Dear Minister Goodale,

Re: Immigration Detainees on Hunger Strike

OCASI – Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants is writing to ask that you meet with the more than 60 immigration detainees presently on hunger strike at two Ontario prisons.

OCASI Comments on Bill C-6 - Citizenship Bill

Debbie Douglas, OCASI Executive Director appeared before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration to make a presentation and answer questions about our submission on Bill C-6 - An Act to amend the Citizenship Act and to make consequential amendments to another Act.

Media release

March 29, 2016 – A new report concludes that all migrant workers should have access to settlement services and permanent residence. The report, “Migrant Workers: Precarious and Unsupported”, released today by Canada’s nine national, regional and provincial umbrellas of organizations serving newcomers, compiles the responses from 167 organizations on the needs and realities of migrant workers, by province and region..

Debbie Douglas, Executive Director was Co-Chair of the 18th National Metropolis Conference held in Toronto from March 3-5, 2016. (Click here for Debbie’s welcome remarks).

OCASI also had a strong presence throughout the conference at plenary sessions, and as presenter and organizer at the following concurrent breakout sessions:

It seems that every week there’s a good news policy story as we witness the federal government respond to years of advocacy from a broad network of groups, organizations and individuals concerned with creating an equitable society and committed to public policy that advances the wellbeing of those who are most vulnerable among us.