Announcement

We are collecting your stories about OCASI and photos to mark our 40th anniversary this year. Share your story and help us build the Ontario archive of the immigrant and refugee-serving sector.

Don’t know where to start? Not sure how to tell your story? Here are some sample questions to help you get started:

It is a windy, icy mid-April Spring morning as I turn my thoughts to the beginning of a new fiscal year and what it means, especially this year, for us as a Sector. While the new fiscal year began with the routine complaints – late contracts from funders, too tight timelines for financial claims for end of last fiscal year, inconsistency in communication from the federal funder, less than ideal communication from the provincial funder, there is a sense of anticipation in the air.

Social justice movements are striding confidently into 2018. From the #metoo movement, a decade old hashtag thought up by African American activist Tarana Burke and given new life by the celebrities of popular culture including the high priestess of them all Oprah Winfrey, who with her sister celebs evolved it into a multimillion fund for survivors of sexual harassment and a new hashtag #timeisup; to the thousands of women and their allies who showed up for round two of the women’s march, it feels as if we’re experiencing a seismic cultural shift here in North America and around the globe.

Celebrate Refugee Rights in Canada on April 4!

Refugee Rights Month is commemorated on April 4 every year in Canada to bring attention to the advances made in the protection of refugee rights in Canada as a result of the Supreme Court decision (the ‘Singh’ decision) in 1985. Join us this year to commemorate the 33rd anniversary of the 'Singh Decision'.

Scroll down to see a list of activities in Toronto that you can join.

Most activities are free of charge. Everyone is welcome.

We begin the year in a celebratory and anticipatory mood in Ontario as we welcome the proclamation of Ontario’s Immigration Act on January 1, 2018 which received Royal Assent in May, 2015. The legislation “positions Ontario as a full partner in immigration with the federal government, with an enhanced role in immigration selection aimed at attracting more economic immigrants”, says the recently released 2017 progress report, Our Foundation for Tomorrow, Ontario’s Immigration Strategy.

The long awaited 2016 census on immigration and the ethno-racial diversity of Canada has been released. The numbers tell an exciting story of a Canada becoming increasingly racially diverse, a provincial nominee program regime that is meeting its overarching goal of destining immigrants (including refugees) away from the three major immigration hubs of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, and the promise of younger immigrant and Indigenous populations. The shift in immigration numbers away from Ontario and British Columbia in the five years prior to 2016 also speak to the economic realities of the past decade where (other than the last two to three years) the extractive industries of Alberta and Saskatchewan attracted workers from the rest of Canada, including new immigrants.Farewell speech at OCASI Annual General Meeting by Ibrahim Absiye, President of OCASI.

My fellow members of this Council, associate members and other colleagues, I want to take a few minutes of your time to talk about my feelings today about who we are as a sector. And let me begin with my own personal experience.

It has been a rough period for the estimated 800,000 "Dreamers" in the U.S. — young people who availed themselves of the protections of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program over the past few years. DACA was implemented to give certain young, undocumented migrants, who were brought to the U.S. as minors, temporary protection from deportation action as well as the ability to work legally while in the States.

This August long weekend in Canada was a time for much discussion of what this civic holiday means for different parts of the country. In Ontario, there’s a mishmash of understanding of why we take off the first Monday in the month. For many it’s just a day off. For others (especially Torontonians and those in the Greater Toronto area) its Simcoe day and still for others, especially Ontario’s Black communities, its Emancipation Day, a commemoration of the end of the enslavement of Black people here in Canada* and throughout the Americas (1834).