My nomination is an indication that our hard work in building Canada is recognized. All we do is to serve the community in return for embracing us when we needed it.  

Mehdi Mahdavi
Ottawa Immigrant Entrepreneurship Awards Nominee
I was happy to see integration to Algonquin territory and indigenous culture related programming in 2014 WOW. Please continue to involve local Aboriginal organisations and…

Linda Manning
WOW 2014 participant, Senior Fellow, University of Ottawa
OLIP helps to unite and share scarce resources for greater impact by working together in the field of student education.

Walter Piovesan
Associate Director of Education, Ottawa Carleton District School Board
The City of Ottawa will continue to play a lead role in the implementation of the Ottawa Immigration Strategy, just as we did in the founding of OLIP.

Steve Desroches
City Councillor and Deputy Mayor of Ottawa
In our city’s history, immigrants have always played an important role. They build our economic prosperity, diversify our culture, contribute to our social vitality.

Jim Watson
Mayor of Ottawa
Canada has been shaped by people who came from all over the world to build this country. WOW offers a platform for us to celebrate this history and the future it will help…

Alex Munter, Chair of the OLIP Council and President and CEO of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario and Ottawa Children’s Treatment Centre
The Ottawa Chinese Community Service Centre is so happy to have joined the OLIP Health and Wellbeing Sector Table. It is clear that OLIP cares about immigrants and refugees and…

Wendy Tang, Ottawa Chinese Community Service Centre
The target beneficiary of the work of OLIP is the whole community. In this short period we have planted together important seeds for Ottawa’s development.  

Dick Stewart
OLIP Council
We are very pleased to have done the “Opportunity Cost of Not Investing in Interpretation” report – it is so important to have clarity on these challenges and…

Hindia Mohamoud, Director, OLIP
The work and expertise that OLIP brings to our community is so important as it helps us to build bridges and break down silos.  I look forward to our continued work together. 

Jim Watson, Mayor of Ottawa

The Community Dialogue on Equity in Ottawa

January 10, 2018

On September 21, 2017, OLIP and the Equity Ottawa partners hosted a Community Dialogue on Equity. The Dialogue brought together 75 organization and community representatives to discuss persistent inequities that immigrants, racialized and Indigenous people face in accessing health, education, employment, social and other services. Participants shared their experiences with addressing institutional and systemic barriers to equity, and considered how to bring about change through collective action.

Participants identified the need for a multi-faceted approach to equity in Ottawa that includes:

  1. Acknowledging and addressing systemic inequities, through open dialogues about institutional and systemic racism, bias and discrimination;
  2. Improving equity in organizations, through:
    • Collecting and using quantitative and qualitative data disaggregated by immigrant and racialized status, to identify gaps, monitor progress and improve accountability;
    • Sharing and implementing measures to enhance equity in human resources, governance, service delivery, community engagement and organizational cultures; and
    • Cross-sector learning, information-sharing, action and peer support; and
  3. Drawing on and cultivating equity leadership at all levels in our community.

OLIP thanks participants for sharing their time, energy and ideas, and for committing to work together to advance equity. Special thanks to the following for their inspiring contributions:

  • Patricia Harewood, Dialogue MC and facilitator;
  • Traditional Knowledge Keeper Monique Manatch, Michele Penney and Rachelle Metatawabin;
  • Mayor’s Office representative DG Stringer;
  • Liz Weaver, Tamarack Institute; and
  • Panelists Dahabo Ahmed Omer, Debbie Hoffman and Jacqueline Lawrence.

Thanks also to the Dialogue planning committee and Equity partners, with particular mention of the Ottawa Police Service, for making the event possible; to the YMCA-YWCA/RBC Community Room for the venue; and to Krackers Katering for the food service. Thanks also to the Ontario Trillium Foundation for their support of our equity work.

The Dialogue event was an important milestone to our on-going collaborative planning to build capacity for institutional planning for equity.

We welcome other interested organizations and community members to join the effort. Please contact Denise Deby at denise@olip-plio.ca for further information.