Save the Date Ottawa! May 26 Conference: Building A Sanctuary City from Below

April 30, 2018Leave a comment

An exciting event coming up in Ottawa

*Please share widely*

From the Ground Up: Building a Sanctuary City Together

Every day we witness the fallout of the global crisis of displacement. And we see how governments too often fail to act – or act to make matters worse. Federal immigration laws continue to limit access to status and force people to make life-threatening decisions to seek safety. Ottawa City Council refused to pass a sanctuary city policy, and cities that have policies on paper continue to fail people with precarious immigration status. It’s clear that the work of building inclusive and safe communities for all must begin with us.

We believe that we have the knowledge and the power to do this. In Ottawa and across Canada, organizers, community members and front line service providers have been building safer communities through creative strategies developed from the ground up. Let’s bring our collective skills and experience together to build a sanctuary city from below.

Join us for a day of discussion, learning, and strategizing about:

– Critical Casework: Protecting privacy and access to services
– Border Crossings: Supporting failed asylum seekers
– Unconditional Access: Examples from other cities
– Policing and Immigration: Limiting police discretion

Special guests include:
– Ingrid Mendez, Sanctuary Health, Vancouver
– Serge Bouchereau, Comité d’action des personnes sans statut (CAPSS), Montréal
– Overdose Prevention Ottawa

*Free and open + Snacks

*Onsite childcare

320 Jack Purcell Ln, Corner of Elgin St. 9am – 3pm
* The venue is fully wheelchair accessible.

https://www.facebook.com/events/218608018900630/

Op-Ed: Toronto can easily do more for Non-Status children

June 22, 2017June 24, 2017Leave a comment

My colleagues and I published an op-ed recently on non-status childrens’ experiences with Parks and Recreation, as well as other city services.

You can view the piece here

The article features a recent community-based study published by the Rights of Non-Status Women’s Network on challenges accessing city services for non-status families in Toronto, despite Toronto’s Sanctuary City policy. View the report here.

It also features a report from No One Is Illegal Toronto, as well as research from Ryerson University on Access T.O.

It was a delight working with Petra Molnar and Stephanie J. Silverman on the op. ed. and I’m looking forward to future collaborations.

Good news in Immigration: Spousal Sponsorship no longer “conditional”

April 28, 2017May 12, 2017Leave a comment

The Trudeau government has kept its election promise to repeal conditional status for sponsored spouses. This is good news. The two-year condition, which was introduced by the former Conservative government under Harper, was highly problematic particularly for sponsored spouses at risk interpersonal or familial violence.

Congratulations to all of the advocates who worked tirelessly to ensure this condition was removed! We will be celebrating at our upcoming Forum on Sanctuary Cities and the Future of Regularization on May 24th at the University of Toronto.

Spring Forum Time Source: RNSWN

Details on the changes are available here.

Media coverage highlighting the role of advocates: Advocates hail end to ‘conditional’ spousal visas

To read more about the UofT study highlighted in media coverage, see the Migrant Mothers Project

Sanctuary Cities & the Future of Regularization ~ A community forum

April 17, 2017April 22, 2017Leave a comment

The Rights of Non-Status Women’s Network (RNSWN) is hosting our 2017 Spring Forum at the University of Toronto on Wednesday, May 24, 2017.

Come Through!

Spring Forum Time ~ Source: RNSWN

DESCRIPTION

Please join us for our spring forum, a biannual networking and information sharing event. The forum’s morning panel will present individuals’ and front line workers’ struggles and strategies to gain access to City of Toronto services for people without immigration status. The afternoon panel will discuss a variety of approaches and strategies on status regularization for people with no legal immigration status. We welcome your questions for all our panellists in open Q&A sessions at the end of each panel and invite you to network over a delicious lunch break.

9:30 to 10:00 Registration and Networking

10:00 to 12:30 Panel on Sanctuary City Toronto with speakers from Research Institutions, City Officials, and Social Service Organizations

12:30 to 1:30 Lunch & Networking

1:30 to 3:30 Panel on The Future of Regularization with speakers from Refugee, Legal, and Grassroots Advocates

3:30 to 4:00 Wrap Up and Discussion

Suggested Donation (for operational costs) to be paid in cash at the door. A receipt can be provided.

• Non-Students: $5-10

• Students are free. Please bring your student I.D.

Please RSVP by Friday May 19th as spaces are limited ~ Thank You!

Thank you to Migrant Mothers Project, South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario, FCJ, and Springtide Resources who have generously supported this symposium.

~ Space is fully wheelchair accessible. Please let us know of any accessibility needs in advance so that we can do our best to accommodate them.

DATE AND TIME

Wed, 24 May 2017

9:30 AM – 4:00 PM EDT

LOCATION

University of Toronto- Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work

246 Bloor Street West

3rd Floor- Student Lounge

Toronto, ON M5S

RSVP on Event Brite

Women’s March #TO

January 22, 2017April 21, 2017Leave a comment

Love Trumps Hate at the Women’s March | Toronto | Pictured here with family & friends ❤

The Women’s March on Washington had me thinking about this quote by Howard Zinn…

“Revolutionary change does not come as one cataclysmic moment (beware of such moments!) but as an endless succession of surprises, moving zigzag toward a more decent society. We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world. Even when we don’t “win,” there is fun and fulfillment in the fact that we have been involved, with other good people, in something worthwhile. We need hope.

An optimist isn’t necessarily a blithe, slightly sappy whistler in the dark of our time. To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places–and there are so many–where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction. And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”