By Neil Armstrong
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| Photo credit: Rwandan Canadian Healing Centre Debbie Douglas, executive director of the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI), speaks at press conference outside 129 Peter St., Toronto |
Now that many of the African refugee claimants that were living on the sidewalk outside 129 Peter Street — location of the City of Toronto Referral and Assessment Centre — have been temporarily housed in churches and hotels, a critical next step is to file their claim for refugee status.
Debbie Douglas, executive director of the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI), says it is important that each person filing a claim do it with the assistance of people who know what is required.
“One mistake on a person’s claim could become a life or death issue. You really need not only to tell your story but know how to tell the story because you eventually end up before a judge to determine whether or not you will be granted refugee status.”
A successful claim results in an individual being able to apply for a work permit, for Ontario Works as income support until such time as they find a job, and they are able to access services paid for by the province and the city, says Douglas who sits on the Black Community Housing Advisory Table (BCHAT) ensuring that the African refugee claimants are supported.
BCHAT, which is a table, not an organization, has taken the leadership on this issue. Also sitting at the table are OCASI, Black Opportunity Fund, and some other individuals and organizations.
On July 14, African groups, groups working with refugees, people experiencing homelessness, and other civil society groups gathered outside 129 Peter Street to call on all levels of government to urgently provide emergency housing and support, in order to address the current shelter system crisis that is impacting unhoused refugee claimants and migrants in Toronto. Among them was Pastor Eddie Jjumba of Dominion Church International Toronto whose church is now providing temporary shelter to many.
Douglas said almost two months ago it was the Ethiopian community that flagged the situation with African refugee claimants.
The Ethiopian Association had put it out on the African Solidarity Network — a network of Black African leaders for which OCASI is the secretariat — that they needed help.
“They basically said help, all of our people are sleeping outside 129 Peter. I think what they did was they went ahead and found private homes and some of the Ethiopian churches took in people.”
However, the Ethiopian Association very quickly became overwhelmed with donations of clothes because they had been defunded by the federal government about 12 years ago and did not have the capacity to continue to manage.
“So they have been completely erased from the story when in fact it was their alert that made many people, like OCASI, begin to pay attention to what was happening,” said Douglas.
Kizito Musabimana, founder and executive director of the Rwandan Canadian Healing Centre, and Diane Walter, executive director of Margaret’s Housing and Community Support Services, have been taking the lead in service coordination and also spoke at the press conference.
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| Photo credit: Rwandan Canadian Healing Centre Kizito Musabimana, founder and executive director of the Rwandan Canadian Healing Centre, speaks at the press conference outside Peter St., Toronto, on July 14, 2023 |
Douglas is pleased that several organizations and churches have stepped up, especially Revivaltime Tabernacle and Dominion Church International Toronto. Last week, Pastor Judith James of Revivaltime issued a call for volunteers to help sort the donations that were coming from Ontarians to the church for the asylum seekers.
OCASI’s role is to talk to the politicians who sit at various tables and make sure that things are happening to keep the matter in the media but also to talk about the larger issues.
Douglas said the crisis outside 129 Peter Street is being dealt with, and they expect other people to continue to show up because there is a lot of homelessness in the African community and others, but specifically among the African refugee claimant population.
As people heard about the church offering housing many showed up and at one point the numbers swelled to 350-400 people between the two churches.
“The federal government finally came up with some money, so did the province and the city but what we are pushing the mayor about is that we don’t care where you get the money from, you need to open shelters and the existing shelters have no space,” said Douglas who is calling for the expansion of hotel rooms. Since Thursday many of these refugee claimants have been moved to hotels.
“Right now it’s about service coordination, who’s going, who’s doing what, our community health centres (CHCs) — Parkdale Queen West and Black Creek, Angela [Robertson] and Cheryl [Prescod], — really have shown up and are working to pull other CHCs, other health resources together. Organizations like the FCJ Refugee Centre are going in to help out with, as well as the Black Lawyers Association, are going in to help refugees specifically with claim forms to file for refugee status.”
The city does not fund immigrant services directly but funds many community organizations that provide services to immigrants. The province provides services to new arrivals such as refugee claimants, migrant workers, international students, citizens and immigrants as well.
However, the federal government is the largest funder. While the province spends about $125 million a year, including Adult ESL and other services as well such as immigrant employment and others, the federal government this year is spending over $500 million in Ontario’s region, notes Douglas explaining the difference in scope.
Douglas said even before this crisis, OCASI has been pushing the province to increase its funding.
“We have an increasing population of refugee claimants for whatever reason. They are increasing across the world; it makes sense we’re seeing it here in Canada and so the funding needs to be increased.” They have also been fighting with the federal government for years to lift the eligibility criteria. “They need to expand it to include refugee claimants, temporary workers and international students.”
Douglas said Mayor Olivia Chow has been stepping up. She said a vast majority are newly arrived refugee claimants. When people come through the Toronto Pearson International Airport — which most people do — those who want to make a refugee claim will have their ID checked and if authorities think they are not a flight risk and their ID checks out, they are given the address for 129 Peter Street central housing because people come in and they have nowhere to go.
These refugee claimants were arriving at Peter Street only to be told there is no housing anywhere.
At the beginning of June, deputy mayor Jennifer McKelvie announced that the City of Toronto had no other choice but to refer refugees and asylum seekers to federal Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) programs for support if the City’s refugee centres were full.
“The problem is there is no government program, housing program, the only hotel the federal government has in Toronto is for a two-week stay close to the airport for Ukrainians. But the city itself had opened a hotel for Ukrainians about a year ago and the federal government had not stepped up to pay for it. The city has been paying for it and people have been in there for a long time so that puts pressure on city’s budget,” said Douglas.
She outlined that there was the unexpected influx of Ukrainians, the Afghans were coming in, and many refugee claimants came through before the federal government shut the unofficial border crossing at Roxham Road down.
A vast majority had been moved to Ontario after Quebec said it could not absorb any more. They intentionally stayed away from Toronto and went to Niagara, Cornwall and then later when Niagara started making noise to places like Kitchener-Waterloo, some out of province but people migrate to Toronto — the most multicultural, multiracial place. “Toronto is where people find their cultural community, where they hear their language, where they get their food, where they find queer community because many of the folks are queer. Many are queer and from west and east Africa — many from Uganda tend to be queer, gay, lesbian and trans.” After being assured by the two churches that they would be welcomed and treated with respect and dignity, BCHAT gave the okay for the claimants to be moved there. They also spoke about women and women safety.
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| Photo credit: Rwandan Canadian Healing Centre Some of the placards at the press conference held outside 129 Peter St. in Toronto on July 14, 2023 |
Douglas is hoping that now that people are moving into hotels it will give them a bit of stability for at least a few weeks so they can sort their issues — what they need in terms of healthcare, and if they are queer, finding queer community.
Douglas said the community has really rallied to support these refugee claimants and while many brought hygiene products, what was really needed was cooked food because these are churches. “People wanted to drop off clothes, no, this is a temporary situation: there is no place, they don’t need clothes.”
Douglas does not know much about the fundraising efforts but said there is an attempt to centralize the messaging, and there has to be a public accounting for any funds raised.
Last week, Immigration Minister Sean Fraser announced the federal government would allocate $212 million for the Interim Housing Assistance Program, which provides funding on a cost-sharing basis to provinces and municipalities to cover the costs of interim housing for asylum claimants. Fraser said $97 million would be earmarked for Toronto.
BCHAT says it is crucial to clarify the allocation of funds specifically for African refugee claimants and asylum seekers.
Toronto city councillors also unanimously passed a motion to expand funding and resources to help house asylum seekers in the city.
In a joint statement last week, Mayor Olivia Chow and Premier Doug Ford said that Ontario and Toronto would each provide $6.67 million as a one-time funding top up to the Canada-Ontario Housing Benefit to get more people into permanent housing and quickly free up spaces in the shelter system.
They noted that historically, the federal government contributes two-thirds of the cost of the housing benefit program, and to help more people move into permanent housing, they are urging the federal government to provide $26.7 million in funding. That number would be in addition to the $97 million the federal government committed to help the city house an influx of newcomers last week.
Last week, Black community leaders Jean Augustine and Zanana Akande expressed how troubled they were by the scene outside 129 Peter Street.
“This is not the Canada that we are building, this is not the Canada that speaks about diversity; this is not the Canada that speaks about respect for each other. This is not the Canada that gets around tables to talk about the situation of refugees, the situation of people around the world who need Canadian help, Canadian assistance and that we have a country where everyone is welcome, and everyone is given an opportunity to prosper, reach their full potential, to be and to have life a bit better than what they leaving behind. I think it’s important for us not to sit back, it’s important for us not to allow this to happen,” said Augustine.
Akande said she was shocked when she saw the makeshift dwelling on the sidewalk.
“We have been listening for months about fires, about storms, from every part of Canada and beyond and immediately those people are taken into municipal buildings or into schools or into centres somewhere. And we have been hearing about refugees who have been coming to Canada and I know from the friends that I’ve made that some of our Ukrainians who have been here have been taken into centres, and our people are on the street.
“I’m not an immigrant, I was born in this country, in this city of immigrant parents and we have always supported each other in being fair and expecting for each other what we have for ourselves, and extending our gifts so that others could profit from them, and yet we have Black people — let me be clear, Black people sleeping on the street, women trying to cover themselves adequately while they sleep — and I must tell you I am offended. This is not the Canada that I went to school and learned with, this is not the Canada that I taught hundreds and hundreds of children to be able to contribute to, this is not the Canada that I went to the University of Toronto and taught teachers how to teach so that they could make them welcome.
“This is not that Canada and I want, no, no, no, I insist that my tax dollars be spent to give equal service to my people. And once again I have to talk about my people in a country where I’ve been raised, in a city where I’ve been raised living with Italians, Jews, and Ukrainians and white people, and Black people, and people from all parts of this world. You have, we have allowed my people to be so disrespected. I will not stop talking about this, I will not rest until they get equity.”
Meanwhile, Revivaltime Tabernacle has posted on its website the donations needed as of July 22, 2023. They include items categorized under the following headings: clothing, toiletries, cleaning and kitchen. Cash donations can also be made; the full list can be viewed at revivaltimetabernacle.org.
On July 20, the Toronto Dancehall Community in partnership with the Jamaican Canadian Association held a fundraiser titled “Refugee Crisis in Toronto” at the Jamaican Canadian Centre.
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