Consultations

The Canadian Council for Refugees holds two Consultations each year, one in the spring (May or June) and one in the fall (November or December). The Consultations are held in different cities.

CCR Consultations address issues of refugee protection and immigrant and refugee settlement. They bring together 300 or more people from across Canada and beyond. Participants include refugees, immigrants, representatives of NGOs, government, UNHCR, academics and international guests.  A General meeting of members is always held at these Consultations, where the resolutions that drive CCR policy are moved and adopted.

The consultations offer a key opportunity for information-exchange, networking, strategy development and discussion.

People who work with newcomers and those with a personal interest in refugees and immigrants are warmly invited.

The consultation is an excellent opportunity to:

• meet and learn from experts in the field
• exchange information and prepare resolutions on a broad range of refugee and newcomer issues
• contribute to the CCR working groups’ ongoing dialogue on policy and legislation.

Working group meetings

The CCR’s three Working Groups provide the forum for CCR members and other refugee and immigrant rights advocates to exchange information, network and develop policy positions in particular areas of concern.  Each Working Group is responsible for preparing resolutions, following up on action items, and planning workshops for the consultations, as well as for advising the CCR Executive on policy.  The Working Group meetings are closed to representatives of government and the media.

The CCR Working Groups meet four times a year.  Two of these meetings take place during the consultations (see above).  The other two series of working group meetings take place in February (in Toronto) and in September (in Montreal).

The working group meetings offer an excellent opportunity to:

• Participate in efforts to promote refugee protection and resettlement, and the settlement of refugees and immigrants
• Discuss in depth pressing issues affecting refugees and immigrants in Canada
• Share information and strategies with others from across Canada

Further information about the three working groups.

To protect the privacy of participants, we ask you to respect our policy restricting any forms of recording during CCR sessions. You may however take photos (or film or audio record) outside the CCR sessions (for example in the coffee area or lobbies, or before or after a workshop session), but ONLY after explaining the purpose and obtaining permission of each person photographed, filmed or recorded. The policy is available at http://ccrweb.ca/en/policy-recording

There will be CCR photographers taking pictures during some of the sessions, so that we can document the consultation. If you do not wish to be included in any of the photos, sit in the part of the room that is marked as photo-free. In certain circumstances, the CCR may grant exceptions to specific projects involving recording during a session. Applicants would need to make a request in advance. For more information, see http://ccrweb.ca/en/recording-request.