Executive Director's Message

Toronto / December 2024

I am having one of those moments where competing emotions are screwing with my heart and head and soul. I am sharing space at this very moment that I’m writing this, with a diversity of organizations and groups in a light-filled room in the aesthetically beautiful Ma Mawi Wi Chi Itata Centre gathering place in Winnipeg.

Toronto / October 2024 - It was the beeping sound of text messages coming through my phone that woke me up this morning. I quickly shook off sleep and reached for my phone wondering why my youngest, away at school, would be blowing up my phone this early in the morning. It wasn’t her.

Toronto / September 2024 – It’s Labour day and my thoughts turn to the role of unions, in our work of building inclusive and welcoming communities so that all im/migrants and refugees find a sense of home regardless of where they land in this vast country of ours.

This moment in time feels like back to the future. Not in the sense of Sankofa – looking back to take the lessons that will help to shape the future - but in a sense of historical erasure which will ensure that we repeat practices that are exclusionary, that are discriminatory and divisive.

Toronto / June 2024 - As the car turned the corner of Davenport Road, turning into Church Street (non-Torontonians, indulge me for a moment), I sensed a change in the air at this intersection of the northern entry to Toronto’s Gay Village. A place that represents freedom, liberation and possibilities for many young queer persons across Canada, but probably more so around the globe.

Toronto / May 2024 - “We will have to be nuanced in our response.” I wrote to my Board of Directors, as a follow up to their discussion on the almost daily announcements of changes to the International Students Program from the federal Minister of Immigration. But after hitting send, I wondered how do you nuance the lives of individuals that are being impacted by these changes?

Toronto / May 2024 - “We will have to be nuanced in our response.” I wrote to my Board of Directors, as a follow up to their discussion on the almost daily announcements of changes to the International Students Program from the federal Minister of Immigration. But after hitting send, I wondered how do you nuance the lives of individuals that are being impacted by these changes?

Toronto / April 4, 2024

Dear OCASI Family,

Today we recognize the thirty-ninth anniversary of the Singh decision which confirmed that refugees are protected by Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

This day and what it represents -access to justice for all who are resident on this land, is more important than ever as we bear witness to unprecedented numbers of asylum seekers arriving on our shores seeking protection and refuge.

Toronto / March 2024

The invitation to join a group of feminist sisters over a two-day retreat with a loose agenda and no plans for post retreat work was met with a hopeful sigh and a touch of skepticism. As I walked into the hotel lobby that Sunday evening after an uneventful ride from the airport to Gatineau, I was met by two of my African-descent sisters who had arrived earlier and had made themselves the unofficial welcome community. We hugged and I could feel the early loosening of the muscles in my upper back.