Executive Director's Message

September 2018

August 2018

It is the beginning of August and as it is every year after the celebration of the Caribbean Carnival formerly known as Caribana, and the celebration of Emancipation of people of African Descent from enslavement in the Americas (including Canada), there’s always this sense that this is the beginning of the end of summer.

July 2018 - The Friday before the long weekend and our national recognition and celebration by some and resistance by others of the formation of our country Canada, we were greeted with unexpected and disappointing news. The newly elected government of Ontario had decided to disregard tradition and do away with the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration. The Ministry has played an important role in Ontario’s economic development plans.

June 2018

It is late Spring, feeling and looking like summer, a few days after I returned to Ontario after being away for a week on vacation in Jamaica (yes, I voted in the advance poll!). I came home to a province of mixed political and emotional sentiments - A Progressive Conservative majority government which some find concerning, wondering and worrying if the public policies and programs that they’ve worked so hard and long to bring to fruition will be done away with.

After being away from my office for two weeks, travelling the country for various meetings all having to do with women`s rights, feminism and the role of States and Governments, I came to my desk and sat down to check my messages. The first message to play was from a colleague from British Columbia, I`m yet to meet in person. Her message? She was calling to gauge my interest in discussing the re-establishment of a national immigrant and ‘visible minority’ (racialized) women’s voice/organization/coalition.

April, 2018

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.

February 2018

"Your silence will not protect you" - Audre Lorde

January 2018

November 2017

October 11, 2017 - Farewell speech at OCASI Annual General Meeting by Ibrahim Absiye, President of OCASI - Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants
(Reprinted with permission)

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.