Announcement

August 1, is emancipation day, a day when African Canadians along with others of the African diaspora throughout the Americas (including the Caribbean) and Europe, reflect and pay homage to the ancestors who resisted and survived their enslavement as an African people, so that we can be here… so that I can be here.

APPEL D’OFFRES

Conférence de développement professionnel OCASI 2019
Toronto, Ontario
17 et 18 octobre 2019

Date limite de soumission: mercredi 31 juillet 2019

Cliquez ici pour l'appel d’offres en anglais [English]

Faites défiler vers le bas pour le lien du formulaire de soumission en ligne.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

2019 OCASI Professional Development Conference
Toronto, Ontario
October 17 & 18, 2019

Deadline for submissions: Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Click here for call for proposals in French

Scroll down for the link to the online submission form.

This has been an interesting past few weeks with various polls being released gauging Canadians including immigrants (including refugees) beliefs, feelings and understanding of (im)migration, immigrants as people, ethno-racial make-up of immigration and the changing face of Canada`s ethno-cultural/racial make-up.

I sit down to write this blog (or as my colleagues call it- rant-) with a mixed sense of anticipation and trepidation. An emotional potpourri – in the hodgepodge/ragbag meaning, not deodorizer or freshener sense.

Spring seems hesitant to come into its own this year. Or maybe it’s winter holding on stubbornly refusing to recognize that its time has passed - at least for now - but will always come around again. A promise. Similar to the promise that day will always follow night. Why am I waxing poetic? I am searching for hope, digging deep to find my optimism, to remind myself and you (I guess) that the gathering clouds, the political miasma that seems to be settling in will only be for a moment in time.

The space was standing room only as the Toronto Planning Group including OCASI in partnership with the City of Toronto’s Newcomer Office, launched Refugee Rights month. This year marks the thirty-fourth anniversary of the Singh decision. Since my two decades at the Council we have marked this important Supreme Court of Canada decision each year.

“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own” and “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house” - Audre Lorde

Two quotes from the late prolific writer, lesbian-feminist, social justice warrior, Librarian Audre Lorde. Apt quotes I would say for the political moment in which we find ourselves especially this month as we mark International Women’s Day, a nod to working women although that herstory is often overlooked.

“They Tried to Bury Us/They didn’t know we were seeds” - Mexican saying.

“What did you not do to bury me/But you forgot that I was a seed?” - Greek poet, Dinos Christianopoulous.

Albert Jackson had a new stamp made in his image and released in time for African/Black History month, 2019. Toronto’s, and Canada’s first Black mail carrier, this recognition of the contributions of Black folks to early Toronto, Ontario and Canada’s history is long overdue.

Celebrate April 2019, Refugee Rights Awareness Month

April 3, 2019 / Toronto – The Toronto Planning Committee for Refugee Rights Month 2019 is proud to commemorate the important anniversary of the April 4, 1985 Supreme Court decision recognizing that refugees have fundamental rights.