OCASI writes to Minister of Citizenship and Immigration
April 04, 2006
Hon. Monte Solberg
Minister of Citizenship and Immigration
House of Commons
Parliament Buildings
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0A6
4 April 2006
Dear Minister Solberg,
On March 20, 2006, the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI) had the opportunity to meet with you and present a brief overview of current priorities and challenges in immigration and settlement in Ontario.
OCASI is the umbrella body for immigrant and refugee-serving organizations in Ontario and has a membership of more than 170 agencies in this province. OCASI is the collective voice of the immigrant and refugee-serving sector in Ontario, and its' mission is to achieve equality, access and full participation for immigrants and refugees in every aspect of Canadian life.
One of our priorities, as presented to you at our meeting is the need to introduce a process to regularize the status of non-status immigrants in Canada. Canada has consistently depended on the labour of immigrants both with and without regular immigration status. They have not only helped to build our economy, but have also been an integral part of our communities.
As reported by community organizations serving immigrants, business organizations and media, the number of immigrants without status living and working in Canada has grown significantly in recent years. They are a vital part of not only the construction industry, but also service sectors in hospitality, domestic work and others. The presence of non-status immigrants in Canada is a problem that we have created, through introducing immigration laws and policies that bear little relation to this country's current labour needs, and that have ignored the humanitarian principles on which our refugee protection system is founded.
We believe that it is time to review current immigration legislation and policies, and to develop a process that would allow for the regularization of non-status immigrants. The failure to do so, and to proceed with the removals of these immigrants will have a significant negative impact on businesses that depend on their labour, and will devastate the communities that they have helped to build and sustain. We ask you to work together with the Minister of Public Safety, Stockwell Day, to place a temporary hold on these removals until your Department and your colleagues in government have had an opportunity to consider a regularization process.
At our meeting, OCASI had the opportunity to submit to you a copy of a proposal for regularization, as well as a research document that identifies Canada's precedents for such initiatives. Previous Canadian governments have at various times introduced programs that would consider the situation of groups of individuals such as refugees with failed claims and who are allowed to remain because they are from countries to which Canada has placed a moratorium on deportations. They have also introduced time-limited programs to allow status regularization for individuals who have been working in Canada and have been contributing to our economy. I have attached a copy of our proposal and urge you to give this and other proposals submitted to the Department of Citizenship and Immigration, careful consideration.
OCASI invites you to visit Toronto once again, and have the opportunity to meet with us and other organizations concerned with immigrant settlement and integration so that we can put forward our concerns and the urgent need for a regularization process. I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Debbie Douglas
Executive Director
CC: Hon. Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada
Hon. Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety
Hon. Bill Graham, Leader of the Opposition
Hon. Gilles Duceppe, Leader - Bloc Québécois
Hon. Jack Layton, Leader - New Democratic Party of Canada
Hon. Dalton McGuinty, Premier of Ontario
Hon. Mike Colle, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration (Ontario)
Click here for the Regularization Proposal. [Adobe Acrobat PDF 114 KB, 4 pages].