A proposal has been brought to Ottawa City Council to adopt the status of a “sanctuary city”, where immigrants and refugees are given the ability to access municipal services without fear of discrimination, detention, or deportation. Such policies have been adopted in other major Canadian cities.
On March 30th 2017, at the Community Protective Services Committee meeting, close to 30 different groups including the FCA we present in support the concept of Ottawa as a Sanctuary City. No motion was brought to the table and the item is still up for discussion.
The FCA passed the following motion at our March 15th general meeting:
“Be it resolved that the Federation of Citizens Associations of Ottawa (FCA) support declaring Ottawa a Sanctuary City i.e., a city where city-funded agencies, boards and services ensure that city services are available to anyone regardless of their immigration status, and that they may access these services without fear of discrimination, detention or deportation and that community associations in Ottawa be encouraged to adopt this resolution and inform their City Councillor.”
Here is the FCA letter sent to the City of Ottawa.
https://fca-fac.ca/fca-ltr-cps-sanctuary/
The FCA encourages all CAs to discuss the issue and if CAs wish to support it they can do the following:
Background information:
ottawasanctuarycity.ca
http://council.vancouver.ca/20160406/documents/pspc3.pdf
http://www.amssa.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/AMSSA-Info-Sheet-Issue-13-Sanctuary-Cities1.pdf
macleans.ca/society/sanctuary-
http://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/vancouver-considers-access-without-fear
https://capitalnews.ca/ottawa-considers-sanctuary-city-status/
http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/ottawa/santuary-city-cps-committee-march-1.3972728
http://www.iheartradio.ca/580-cfra/news/watson-inclined-to-reject-sanctuary-motion-1.2387139
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/city-hall-blog-sanctuary-city-buzz-raises-dewar-factor
http://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/letters/todays-letters-are-sanctuary-cities-a-good-idea-or-not
https://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2014/06/10/toronto_forges_ahead_with_sanctuary_city_plan.html
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/sanctuary-cities-cant-run-on-goodwill-alone/article34205391/