Winter Working Group meetings 2021

Do you want to be part of efforts to promote rights for refugees? Want to participate in in-depth discussions on pressing issues affecting refugees and immigrants in Canada? Looking for an opportunity to share information and strategies with others from across Canada?

Participate in the Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR) Working Group meetings online, 2 - 4 March 2021. Each meeting will last 2.5 hours including a 15mn break and start at 2:00pm EST.

Anyone interested is welcome to participate, especially CCR members; however meetings are closed to media and government employees.

Schedule (subject to change):

Tues., March 2	Wed., March 3	Thurs., March 4
Overseas Protection and Resettlement Working Group Meeting 2:00pm - 4:30pm (EST) includes 15 minute break	Immigration and Settlement Working Group Meeting 2:00pm - 4:30pm (EST) includes 15 minute break	Inland Protection Working Group Meeting 2:00pm - 4:30pm (EST) includes 15 minute break

Time zones reference guide:

The meetings all begin at:

NST

3:30pm

AST

3:00pm

EST

2:00pm

CST

1:00pm

MST

12 noon

PST

11:00am

Registration:

Here are the links to register. Please note that you can choose to attend one, two or all of the WG meetings:

On the agenda:

Detailed agendas for the meetings will be sent to the CCR list, and for members who have user accounts, they will be available on the Working Group webpages.

Resource persons:

If you have a question ahead of the meetings you can contact:

For OPR and IP: Janet Dench at jdench@ccrweb.ca
For I&S: Sandra Gasana at sgasana@ccrweb.ca

We are really looking forward to getting together soon!

General Information

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 a forum to exchange information, network and develop policy positions on issues related to the Working Group.

Each Working Group is responsible for following issues, promoting engagement of members and the public, developing recommendations for policy and action, and encouraging learning. This includes planning workshops, preparing resolutions, following up on action items, and advising the CCR Executive on policy. Click here for further information on the terms of reference for the Working Groups.

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 are closed to representatives of government and the media.

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

Click here for more information about the CCR Working Groups

Photography, filming and audio recording

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.

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