Activities online implemented by the FCJ Youth Network during the COVID-19:
The FCJ Youth Network keeps the Wednesdays meetings but now they are virtual meetings.
FCJ Youth Network is doing Virtual Family Dinners last Wednesday of every month.
You are invited to join the group!
Migrant worker advocates say the COVID-19 pandemic highlights the need for the federal government to create a new mechanism for foreign workers to access critical benefits like employment insurance (EI).
Debbie Douglas, executive director of the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants, told the House human resources committee on Monday that the government must find a way to ensure that temporary foreign workers (TFWs) can access the benefits they’re already paying into, such as the Canadian Pension Plan (CPP) and EI benefits. […]
Isabel Inclan, New Canadian Media
Migrant workers’ advocates are calling on the federal government to adopt a holistic approach to address human trafficking that encompasses prevention, social protections, accountability, and labour mobility.
Migrant groups said existing government programs and policies fail to protect some migrant workers who are most susceptible to labour trafficking. […]
On the World Refugee Day we prepared a special Newsletter to say thank you for your support! Every Action Counts!
At FCJ Refugee Centre we continue working in solidarity with precarious migrants. We understand that this is a difficult and uncertain time for many. We recognize that precarious migrants are severely affected already as racialized and marginalized persons. With the health and safety of our entire community in mind we did some adjustments to our daily work environment.
Thank you for join us at our virtual Open House. We wanted to show you how we have kept the door open for precarious migrants.
We continue to remotely offer as many services as possible by phone, e-mail, or any other electronic means available to us. Due to the donations and help received we have been able to continue offering our services and supporting individuals and families who do not have access to emergency benefits.
During the Open House we launched our video “Borderless Humanity” to say thank you for your support through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Transparency is how we say thank you.
Call from the FCJ Anti-Human Trafficking Migrant Workers Mobile Program – Migrant Rights Network:
5 migrant farmworkers have been hospitalized with COVID-19. Hundreds of others are sick from Windsor, ON, to Kelowna, BC, to Brooks, AB. Migrant care workers remain trapped by employers who refuse to let them leave even to send remittances to families in need.
Today is the third rent day for many hundreds of thousands of families who haven’t had income since March. Across the country, we are fundraising to distribute cash and food, but it’s just not enough. Federal income support remains out of reach, particularly for undocumented people. Even in a pandemic, healthcare is not available in most provinces for uninsured migrants.
COVID-19 has worsened what has been a grave injustice for decades: the inequalities that migrants face are rooted in an immigration system that keeps us temporary and undocumented. This can not continue. On June 14th, we will launch our campaign for full immigration status for nearly 2 million people in the country without permanent resident status. We insist on landed immigration status for all low-waged migrants that arrive in the future.
Join a massive digital and social media gathering of migrants, poor and working class people, and allies. Together, migrants from across Canada will raise our voice for healthcare, decent work, family unity and equal rights for all.
We need you. We need you to join, we need you to mobilize, we need you to organize: RSVP for June 14th!
For the last month, in addition to immediate crisis response, we have been bringing together migrant and undocumented people and allies in almost every province. Thousands of migrants have participated in meetings to talk about the challenges we are facing, and the solutions we need. Today, we launch our plan.
On June 14th, join 46 migrant-led organizations and supporters as we launch our joint call for full immigration status for all. We are essential. We are exploited. We are excluded. We are enraged. We are engaged. We are mobilizing.
In this moment of crisis, we have seen at every turn that the fundamental injustice is lack of full immigration status. It is the absence of valid Social Insurance Numbers that has shut people out of income support. It is tied work permits that have made it impossible for many to leave unsafe work. It is exorbitant tuition fees tied to study permits that push migrant students into bad jobs and despair. It is the fear of detention and deportation that force migrant and undocumented people away from accessing basic needs.
Full immigration status for all is an absolute necessity. Join us now, join us on June 14, help us build the broadest possible movement in defence of all. Start by RSVPing here.
A farm operation in Norfolk County, south of Simcoe, is the latest agricultural facility in Ontario to declare a COVID-19 outbreak after 85 migrant workers tested positive for the virus.
The Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit said Sunday that five workers have been hospitalized and approximately 25 others who tested positive are showing symptoms of the virus.
The migrant workers are employed by Scotlynn Group in Vittoria, a major producer of sweet corn, watermelon, asparagus and pumpkins. Many workers are from Mexico and an official from the Mexican consulate is being made available to speak to those infected. […]
You are invited to register for this informative webinar Anti-Human Trafficking Work Challenges during the Covid-19 Pandemic: Finding Housing for Human Trafficking Victims.
For registration follow the link:
Please register for Anti-Human Trafficking Work Challenges during the Covid-19 Pandemic: Finding Housing for Human Trafficking Victims on Jun 4, 2020 3:30 PM EDT at:
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/89840402830920203
This forum provided in-depth knowledge and innovative approaches on how to maintain anti-human trafficking efforts and provide services to survivors during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It explored innovative ways of partnership collaboration during the pandemic. Recognize and understand how to navigate the system given the current situation of the COVID-19 pandemic. Also it brought awareness on policy gaps & limitations aggravated during the pandemic increasing the vulnerability of victims and survivors of human trafficking.
Speakers:
Shelley Gilbert, Legal assistance Windsor– LAW, WEFight Windsor Human Trafficking Resource
Rhonelle Bruder, advocate member of the TCHTN
Melody Brown, community member of the Native Women’s Resource Centre.
Nadine Edwards, community member of the Native Women’s Resource Centre
Melissa Compton, indigenous advocate against human trafficking
The speakers did excellent presentations.
You are welcome to share our new episodes of Borderless Voices in Spanish:
The information provided through our webinars is also available in our Podcast:Borderless Voices
Upcoming Virtual Info Session/Webinar
On June 24 our webinar will be in Portuguese
The topic is The Humanitarian and Compassionate application in Portuguese.
Aplicação humanitária e compassiva
Você está convidado a participar de nossa sessão informativa
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/5416409090802840588
on June 25 at 10:30 am
The impact of the COVID-19 in the immigration system: measures in the refugee process and refugee hearings.For registration: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/3491643617553253901
Si te perdiste algun webinar puedes escucharlo en nuestra seccion de podcast BORDERLESS VOICES:
https://www.fcjrefugeecentre.org/series/borderless-voices/
Guia Como Registrarse en la Sesion Informativa Virtual FCJ
The Agenda with Steve Paikin, TVO
The COVID-19 pandemic presents a unique set of challenges for migrant workers, non-status individuals, and other vulnerable groups in Canada. The Agenda looks at this issue with Francisco Rico-Martinez, co-director, FCJ Refugee Centre; and Dr. Rupaleem Bhuyan, a University of Toronto social work associate professor and a member of the Rights of Non-Status Women Network.
Construction worker Cesar Paredes, whose wife is due with their first child on May 29, was told by his foreman last Friday that there’s no job for him and 10 other crew members as construction work slowed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Unlike his Canadian colleagues, the undocumented worker from Mexico is not eligible for employment insurance or any provincial or financial aid for those who have lost their jobs due to the crisis. […]
Count on us. We are open.
We are expanding our ways to connect with you. Now you can also find us through WhatsApp: 437 217 37 86.
For any inquiries related to your immigration situation or any settlement support you need during these difficult times, please feel free to contact us through our phone number 416-469-9754, or you can send us a message at our WhatsApp 437 217 37 86.
You can also contact any of the emails or extensions below:
You can make a difference!
At FCJ Refugee Centre we continue working in solidarity with precarious migrants. We understand that this is a difficult and uncertain time for many, and we’re here to support and provide information to anyone who is in need. We provide information through our virtual sessions every Thursday or though our Borderless Voices podcast.
We continue to remotely offer our services you can connect with us by phone or e-mail. We are supporting families who do not have access to the emergency benefits, and we distribute food every week.
Your donation will make a difference to a non-status migrant, family, child, youth, that was not left behind… it will make a difference for that borderless humanity that we are dreaming to build… Your donation is making an immeasurable difference in the lives of all non status people enriching our community.
Thank you for your donation… It has made a difference for that one. For that refugee, for that non-status migrant, family, child, youth, that was not left behind… It made a difference for that borderless humanity that we are dreaming to build… Your donation is making an immeasurable difference in the lives of all non-status people enriching our community.
Since the last week of March, when we just started our campaign “From Our Kitchen Table to Yours: in solidarity with precarious migrants,” our Centre has received many donations, monetary ones in our Emergency Fund, a lot of grocery cards, art and craft supplies, games and books for children and youth; one-time donation, to provide rent support to 25 individuals and 25 families; weekly food donation from Second Harvest; many smiles, signals of solidarity and gratitude…
So far, it makes a difference for just under 150 individuals and families. The number is growing by the day. Thanks for donating to support one refugee… One migrant at a time.
Thanks for donating to support one refugee… One migrant at a time.
Thank you for acknowledging a population so often isolated, marginalized and forgotten… For walking with us… For walking together with uprooted people… For building a borderless humanity…by supporting one refugee or migrant at a time.
Thanks, just thanks.
FCJ Refugee Centre
Emma Paling, The Huffington Post
New immigrants and undocumented workers are still being asked to cover their own health-care costs despite the Ontario government’s promise that this wouldn’t happen during the COVID-19 pandemic, advocates say.
“This is unfair because these are people who have been working and sustaining the economy,” said Loly Rico, the co-director of FCJ Refugee Centre in Toronto. “It’s a very high number of people that live in Toronto and need health coverage.”
FCJ Refugee Centre normally operates a health clinic for uninsured people, which saw about 15 patients a week and had a one-month waiting list before it closed because of the pandemic. After Ontario sent a directive telling hospitals to serve all patients, regardless of their insurance coverage, the centre’s health-care staff started sending patients to hospitals. [… ]
This is the guiding philosophy of not only the FCJ Refugee Centre, but is at the very core of our common humanity. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen an enormous shift in the ways in which we interact, live our daily lives, and see the world around us. We have seen the turmoil that can be brought out in people when they are forced into situations of fear and vulnerability – circumstances so many of us who grew up in Canada with so many privileges have never had to face. But we’ve also seen the generosity of the spirit of our community.
Friends, partners, and neighbours coming together to donate food, arts & crafts supplies, toiletries. People coming together to volunteer their time and efforts to ensuring that their neighbours, and their neighbour’s neighbours have enough.
“From Our Kitchen Table to Yours” has been the manifestation of all of these efforts. An effort with results unprecedented in our Centre’s almost 30 year history. We’ve seen our entire staff and volunteer network shift to fulfill our commitment to the community. We’ve established a tremendous food and housing security initiative, making hundreds of connections in weeks alone.
From our humble community pantry, and from our kitchens to yours, we stand with you in solidarity. Our door is open today as it will be tomorrow.
Count on us.
FCJ Refugee Centre Community
We started collecting art supplies for non-status children and we were so happy to find these letters in each of the art bags. These letters defined our local neighbour… Canada. Keep doing what you are doing. Humanity need you. Keep safe, well and strong… We are together in this.
Special thanks to Maeve and Tate for your wonderful letters. They are 6 and 8 years old and send their beautiful words in solidarity with non-status children.
For decades, we as a community have gathered around our own kitchen table. To share coffee in the morning, to share lunch, have meetings, celebrations, birthdays, conversations and build connections. We’ve worked to support people as they build new homes around kitchen tables in their new lives here. But that process has been incredibly difficult in recent months, and this crisis has magnified those challenges for so many.
For too many people, the kitchen table where families want to gather to break bread and share a meal has become a reminder of the food security they don’t have access to.
With the initiative “From Our Kitchen Table to Yours” we have provided food security measures to 30 homes already just in the last week. In the coming days, due to the recent increase in your generous donations, we now have the capacity to reach another 40 families.
Your donation is making an immeasurable difference in the lives of precarious migrants (families, youth, adults and seniors) – all of the people who make up our enriched community. So this is a brief message of thanks to you.
Thank you for grace and solidarity.
Thank you for acknowledging a population so often isolated, marginalized and forgotten.
Thank you for walking with us…and for walking together with uprooted people.
Thank you for building a borderless humanity by supporting one refugee or migrant at a time.
Thanks, just thanks.
