Sanctuary city debate reignited
By Kaitlin Fisher
A call to action to make Ottawa a sanctuary city was one of the focal points of a kickoff event for International Women’s Day.
The sanctuary city debate was addressed on March 4 by activist Karen Cocq at Beyond Borders: A Night of Feminist Resistance.
Toronto, Hamilton, London and Montreal have each passed motions to become sanctuary cities. Cities that vote to become sanctuary cities strive to ensure that undocumented immigrants can access municipal services without risking deportation.
Cocq said she hopes Ottawa will be the next to follow suit. She urged attendees to join an online petition that was sent to Mayor Jim Watson and council members on International Women’s Day.
Somerset Coun. Catherine McKenney has spearheaded the push to make Ottawa a sanctuary city.
An initial proposal in February was postponed to the end of March pending further public discussion and a more formal examination of the issue by city councillors.
If Ottawa were to be declared a sanctuary city, all people who live in the city would have access to city services, including any emergency care they need, without having to provide proof of their immigration status.
“That, currently, is not the case,” Cocq said. “This means that there are a lot of people in our city — our neighbours, our friends, our co-workers, our family members, our fellow students —
who are not accessing the things they need out of fear.”
Watson has argued that there’s no evidence anyone in Ottawa has been denied services due to immigration issues and that a sanctuary city designation is unnecessary.
Leighann Burns, the executive director of Harmony House shelter for women, said the shelter needs the city’s support.
“A robust sanctuary policy would provide our whole sector with the mandate and tools we need to ensure that no woman is denied the support she needs to be safe,” Burns said in a press release marking International Women’s Day.
Harmony House was one of 25 women’s organizations that penned a letter calling on council to act.
The sanctuary city issue will come to the city’s community and protective services committee on March 30.
If there is a motion to proceed, the issue will be addressed at a city council meeting on April 12.
The rest of the evening at the Beyond Borders event covered a variety of topics and highlighted challenges faced by Indigenous, racialized, Muslim and migrant women, working and poor women, and disabled, queer, gender non-conforming and trans individuals.
The evening conveyed the message that in times of intensified attacks on these communities, feminists must come together and resist.
Approximately 150 people attended the event, which took place at the Jack Purcell Community Centre.
The master of ceremonies, Bilan Arte, said the evening was meant to inspire attendees to “truly create the kind of socially just and equitable world that we all want to see ourselves in.”
Resistance was the main theme of the evening, as guest speakers explained how they resist and why they choose to do so.
“As if there were alternative choices,” said Rosy Douge-Charles, a member of BlakCollectiv. “The simple answer is we have no choice.”
“We meaningfully and intentionally organized ourselves… to resist the capitalism, the colonialism, the racism, the xenophobia and the injustices that plague our city, our country and our world,” Arte said.
At the end of the evening, Cocq said she was pleased to see such a great turnout at the event.
She said Beyond Borders was meant to bring together women of diverse backgrounds and interests so that attendees and speakers alike could learn from one another.
“We really need that in these times, where there’s not a lot of hope, where we find there is a real rise in hate,” Cocq said. “We feel that in our neighbourhoods. We’ve seen it in Ottawa. A lot of people have paid the price.”
She added: “We were hoping that this would be an opportunity to bring folks together and to build some energy to be able to build stronger and healthier communities.”