FCJ Refugee Centre

As part of the Holiday Season, FCJ Refugee Center has started to sell Christmas trees at Ikea north York location

FCJ Refugee Centre is making a call to everyone on this season   to reflect generosity by the work the Centre does in making the society a better place for vulnerable populations.

On this giving season, FCJ Refugee Centre calls on everyone to consider making a gift to show your support to refugees and other precarious migrants.

You can support us buying a Christmas tree at IKEA NORTH YORK .Every time that you buy a CHRISTMAS TREE at this location, you will be supporting refugees and other vulnerable populations

ADDRESS: 15 Provost Dr, Toronto, ON M2K 2X9

Read all our updates: events and initiatives for the upcoming month:

Museum without a Home (Nov 6): Join us for a memorable evening filled with art, food and music to celebrate the strength of refugees and the kindness of those who welcome them to their new communities.

Showing up for refugees (Nov 4): From November 4th to 8th the Federal Court of Canada will hear a challenge to the designation of the U.S. as a safe third country for refugees.

Human Trafficking and Migrant Worker Exploitation in our Backyard (Nov 22):  This forum is a crucial opportunity to discuss the many migrant workers who come to Canada and whom are subject to labour trafficking and exploitation, due to systemic shortfalls of    Canadian immigration and labour laws.

Demonstrators to rally outside Toronto court in support of legal challenge to
flawed Safe Third Country Agreement

From November 4^th to 8^th the Federal Court of Canada will hear a challenge to the designation of the U.S. as a safe third country for refugees. The court will hear that sending refugee claimants back to the US violates Canadian law, including the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and Canada’s binding international human rights obligations.

The Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR), Amnesty International (AI) and The Canadian Council of Churches (CCC), alongside an individual litigant and her children, initiated the legal challenge in July 2017. The hearings are taking place at the Federal Court of Canada in Toronto, at 180 Queen Street West.

“We are asking the court to look at the impact of the Safe Third Country Agreement on women, men and children who can’t find safety in the U.S. and to assess the legality of Canada sending them back to detention and potential deportation to persecution,” said Claire Roque, CCR President. “The impacts are particularly severe for women, because of U.S. policies that close the door on women fleeing gender-based violence. The conclusion is clear to us: the U.S. cannot be considered a safe country for refugees.”

“The Canadian Council of Churches has long advocated that every human being who is physically present in Canada has a legal right to life, liberty and security of person under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” said Peter Noteboom, General Secretary of The Canadian Council of Churches. “The U.S.-Canada Safe Third Country Agreement stands in the way of guaranteeing those legal rights.”

“The time for Canada to rely on the adequacy of the U.S. protection regime has come to a definitive end,” said Justin Mohammed, Human Rights Law and Policy Campaigner at Amnesty International. “In the absence of action on the part of Canada’s elected representatives to acknowledge the serious shortcomings of the U.S. refugee protection system, we now turn to the courts to ensure that Canada’s domestic and international legal obligations are upheld.”

The organizations and individuals leading the legal challenge have submitted extensive evidence that the U.S. system fails in many ways to protect refugees, and that people turned back from Canada under the Safe Third Country Agreement are at risk of being sent in turn by the U.S. to face persecution, torture and even death in their home countries.

Under the Safe Third Country Agreement, implemented in 2004, refugees who present themselves at a Canada-U.S. border post seeking to make a refugee claim in Canada are, with limited exceptions, denied access to the Canadian refugee system and immediately returned to the United States. Since the Agreement does not apply to people who cross into Canada other than at an official border post, people in need of safety in Canada have been crossing in significant numbers in between ports of entry. Withdrawing from the Agreement would not only ensure that Canada meets its legal obligations, but would also allow people to present themselves in an orderly way at ports of entry, ending irregular crossings.

A rally will be held outside the Court (180 Queen Street West) in support of the legal challenge on Monday, November 4 at 12:30pm.

Media contacts:

Milen Minchev, Communication Coordinator, Canadian Council for Refugees, 514-277-7223, ext.1, 514-602-2098 (cell), media@ccrweb.ca

Lucy Scholey, Media Relations, Amnesty International Canada (English branch), 613-744-7667 ext. 236, lscholey@amnesty.ca

Dr. Nicole Roccas, Communications Coordinator, The Canadian Council of Churches, 416-972-9494 (preferred), communications@councilofchurches.com

The Ontario Coalition of Service Providers for Refugee Claimants Calls on the Provincial Government to Reverse Its Plan to Eliminate the Transition Child Benefit (TCB).

The Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services has announced plans to eliminate Transition Child Benefit (TCB) as of November 1, 2019. TCB provides families with up to a maximum of $230 per child per month. This monthly amount is a lifeline to ensure that children are protected and cared for. Losing this benefit will have devastating consequences, not only for refugee families, but also for other children whose parents are on Ontario Works (OW) or Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) and currently receiving TCB.

Since some families are not eligible for the Ontario Child Benefit (OCB) or the closely-aligned Canada Child Benefit (CCB), the Transition Child Benefit was set up to ensure that the children of those parents who are receiving Ontario Works (OW) or Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) but ineligible for other child benefits would not be without money for food, clothing and basic needs. The removal of TCB stands as a threat to the health and wellbeing of vulnerable families across the province. Refugee claimants will be disproportionately affected if TCB is eliminated, since they are not eligible to receive other benefits for their children based on their immigration status.

Learn about the consequences of the Ontario Government’s failure to provide support for the basic needs of children.

Click here to access the document if you can’t see it in this page.

The letter is signed by members of the Ontario Coalition of Service Providers:

The Ontario Coalition of Service Providers for Refugee Claimants

Member Agencies:

Adam House, Toronto
Angela Rose House, Windsor
Carty House, Ottawa
Casa El Norte, Fort Erie
Casa Maria Refugee Homes, Peterborough
Chez Marie, Fort Erie
Christie Refugee Welcome Centre, Toronto
COSTI Immigrant Services, Toronto
FCJ Refugee Centre, Toronto
Fort Erie Multi-Cultural Centre, Fort Erie
Matthew House, Fort Erie
Matthew House, Ottawa
Matthew House, Toronto
Matthew House, Windsor
Mennonite Coalition for Refugee Support, Kitchener
Micah House, Hamilton
Quaker Refugee Committee, Toronto
Romero House, Toronto
Silas Hill Home for Refugees, Toronto
Sojourn House, Toronto
The 519 Church Street Community Centre, Toronto

Take a look at our Summer Newsletter and learn about our new programs and activities.

We are excited to announce the  increasing number of orientation sessions in Toronto to help refugee claimants prepare for their hearings. A Ready Tour is a refugee hearing orientation session and has become a key resource for unrepresented claimants. After the legal aids cuts we see an increasing number of participants with no legal representative.

• As you know Ready Tours are scheduled twice a month. However, due the increased number of registrations, the program will expand. Starting in August there will be one session per week depending on the demand.
• Besides the expansion, the session also will be facilitated in other languages depending on the participants needs. The first session  is scheduled is in Spanish  on August 30
• This is the calendar for the upcoming sessions:

August  1^st    

August  15^th

August 29^th

August 30^th  pilot session in Spanish

For registrations  just send the above information to readytour@fcjrefugeecentre.org

1. First name:
2. Last name:
3. E mail:
4. Telephone number:
5. Country of origin:
6. Date of claim :(Month/Year)
7. Hearing date :(Month/Day/Year)
8. Do you have a legal representative?
9. Who referred you to the Ready Tour, how did you learn about it?
10. What do you want to learn during the Ready Tour?
11. If you want to refer a group of participants from your agency, just fill out the following chart with the information and send it to me:

I am sending the current flyer we are using. I will send the new one as soon as it is ready.

Thank  you

Thanks to each one of you for joiun us during our street party .

One more year we had the opportunity to celebrate not only the neighbourhood’s diversity – but also Toronto’s, as well as Canada’s – welcoming arms

“We are very grateful to all our supporters for helping us to keep walking with refugees and other precarious populations during 2018. Thanks to you we were able to provide information for refugee claimants and for people who need support in regards to their immigration status and how they can further their situation in Canada.

    Access to Education was one of the main achievements for us. We were able to send 17 youth with precarious immigration status to post-secondary education. In general the FCJ Youth Network and the Access to Education team have had an exceptional year, and look forward to the new projects on 2019.

The increase in the number of people arriving in Toronto continued to impact FCJ Refugee Centre and the City in general. The pressures on the City’s emergency shelter system included an increased number of refugee claimants needing shelter during 2018.We continued working with the Refugee Houses, the City of Toronto,  refugees and migrants to find shelter. Also we partnered with St. Clair Multi-Faith Affordable Housing, we were able to secure funding for a housing worker and a housing allowance. We were able to accommodate five families, one of which was a group of five young siblings from Somalia. In our own houses we managed to shelter 50 women and 6 children in  2018. The majority of them were from Uganda, Nigeria, Colombia, Kenya, Mexico, Cuba, Croatia, and Egypt.

Another large program that we keep running is the Primary Care Clinic, serving people who don’t have access to healthcare. We had a psychiatrist  assisting people with mental health issues. The psychiatrist was also providing refugee claimants with psychological reports and assessments for their claim.

    Public education and the accessibility of information is a key part of the services we provide. The programs included workshops about human trafficking given in rural areas. FCJ has expanded the anti-human trafficking network, and one of our most successful services was the Migrant Worker’s Mobile program. We have a phone number so migrant workers can communicate and contact us directly. We have been helping people mostly who are victims of labour trafficking, and we do this through trainings, outreach, and working with a network of other organizations throughout Ontario.”

Find out more about the co-directors’ reflections on the services and programs implemented by FCJ Refugee Centre during 2018 : click here

Annual Report 2018

Check out our Spring Newsletter:

LEARN ABOUT :

¬ Housing  Report

¬ Writing Workshops

¬ Actions against legal aid cuts

¬ Foreign workers  program  changes

Displaced persons and precarious migrants are particularly vulnerable to a range of other human rights violations that can then impact their right to housing. They are particularly vulnerable to discrimination, racism and xenophobia, which can further interfere with their ability to secure sustainable and adequate living conditions. People who have been forcibly displaced will often have suffered trauma during their journey, and will have lost familiar coping strategies and support mechanisms. Often unable in practice or because of their legal status to rent adequate accommodation, many are forced to live in overcrowded and insecure conditions. These challenges are compounded by Toronto’s ongoing housing crisis, which is a long-standing problem.

Many of our clients facing this situation came to FCJ Refugee Centre looking for support. The following   report  shares our findings on the challenges that refugee claimants and precarious migrants face in finding a place to stay in the city, whether that is a temporary shelter or more permanent housing through the rental market. We are grateful to those who shared their stories with us. We wanted to bring attention to these issues as these vulnerabilities are not given the due attention they deserve, either in the media or in government policies.

To read the report click here :

We had an amazing evening. Thank you to all our supporters!!

Andromeda Diaz
Carlos delgado
John Gross
Mao Correa
Jack Martin
Nawaaz Makhani
Sandra Gonzales
Sandra Patricia Loboa
Youth in Motion
Helena
Mariana Bolanos
Paula Pinheiro
FCJ Youth Network
FCJ Women’s Jewellery Group

SAVE THE DATE! April 26

We are organizing an evening of visual art, music and stories in celebration of Refugee Rights Month. Through this event we are going to honour the contributions made by refugees, inviting them to showcase their works and artistic talents. Also it will be an opportunity to raise funds in support of the work that the FCJ Refugee Centre does.

For 28 years the FCJ Refugee Centre has been championing the rights and protection of refugees, immigrants and precarious migrant populations. With a client-centered, community-driven approach we provide holistic services to vulnerable migrants.

Please find the details below:

Date: April 26^th, 2019
Venue: Matter Gallery
Address: 344 Westmoreland Ave N #104a, Toronto, ON M6H 3A7
Time:   From 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm

RSVP: https://artshow.eventbrite.ca

For more information please contact Marianna Tzabiras, Research and Resource Development by email mariannatz@fcjrefugeecentre.org

Thank you to the Ready Tour participants  for  taking   the time to share your experience at the Ready Tour:

READY TOUR TESTIMONY

Ready Tour was a beautiful and informative experience that I will forever pass down to any refugee coming into Canada.

I heard about it for the first time from my Counselor at the Shelter at a point of exit when I secured an apartment. I decided to give it a shot. I sent a mail requesting for ‘Ready Tour’ to FCJ and I was scheduled for the tour. I got there only to find out that I wasn’t the only one that got the appointment.

The tour was very revealing and informative. It is designed to help refugees with their coming up hearing, to build up a little confidence in them and to reduce the rate of ‘Appeal’ after the hearing.

The Tour like I said was revealing because it revealed that the hearing for the claimants is not a criminal case and it’s just going to be the claimant, the Judge and the claimant’s lawyer.

Well organized and there was room for all to ask questions and interpreters were also available to those that needed it. At the end of the session, I had a sense of what my hearing day is going to look like, who to expect on that day and how to prepare myself.

My Hearing went well and coincidentally, I had mine at the same room where the tour was actually conducted but the truth is I never had scold feet all through the Hearing and this I believe was because of the Readiness I had with FCJ (Ready Tour).

I must confess the team at FCJ are really fantastic. So grateful that I met them and I encouraged immigrants to seek to know the ‘How to’ once they arrive into Canada and FCJ is one of the places to visit for knowledge.

Thanks all!
Anonymous

You are welcome to attend the Ready Tour. For more information and registration please click  here:

https://www.fcjrefugeecentre.org/ready-tour-registration/

The Ready Tour is a free program for refugee claimants  that allow them to visit an actual hearing room and learn about how to be ready for their refugee hearing.

Our Winter Newsletter is here: Learn about the Youth Civic Engagement, art exhibition, volunteer session and Ontario’s Human Trafficking Awareness Day event.

Press Release

Ontario’s Human Trafficking Awareness Day – February 22^nd 2019

A Human Rights Based Approach to End Human Trafficking – Conversation and Press Conference

Organized by the Toronto Counter Human Trafficking Network (TCHTN)

10 AM to 12 PM

At The Mary Ward Centre: 70 St. Mary Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 1J3

Multiple forms of domestic and international human trafficking exist in Ontario, including sex and labour trafficking.  While anyone can be affected by human trafficking, poverty, gender inequality and hyper sexualisation of women and girls, racism, colonialism and precarious immigration status are root causes. These and other factors, create greater vulnerability to human trafficking across Ontario

To read the complete Press Release click here : http://www.fcjrefugeecentre.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Press-Release-Human-Trafficking-Awareness-Day-Feb22-2019.pdf

Please RSVP here: https://humantraffickingawarenessday.eventbrite.ca/

If you have questions please contact:
Luis Mata, Anti-Human Trafficking coordinator at FCJ Refugee Centre

Lmata@fcjrefugeecentre.org

416-4699754 ext. 242