We are deeply distressed by the failure of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) to lay charges against the correctional officers at the Central East Correctional Centre (CECC) after the death of Soleiman Faqiri. On December 15, 2016, Mr. Faqiri, a 30 year old man with...
News & Updates
BLAC Statement on Protests of Statutes
An uprising is taking place in Canada and throughout the world. The voices of Black, Indigenous and racialized groups are being raised and joined in unison by the community at large. We are demanding transformative change. We are demanding an equitable Canadian...
BLAC Statement on Policing and Anti-Black Racism
Over the past weeks, Canadians have witnessed what members of the Black community have experienced for generations: the horrific mistreatment of Black people by the police. Our communities have long been hyper-surveilled and over policed; our minds and bodies have...
BLAC Submissions on Bill 161
BLAC is concerned that Bill 161, Smarter and Stronger Justice Act, 2020 proposes to change LAO’s core mandate of promoting access to justice for low-income Ontario residents. At this critical time, BLAC believes that this will have a negative impact on the Black...
BLAC Statement on the Education System and the Peel District School Board Review
BLAC’s work over the past year has confirmed for us that educational institutions continue to be spaces for the perpetuation of horrendous anti-Black racism. Like others in our community who have worked on these issues for years, we also understand that reports,...
An Open Letter to Ontario Mayors and Police Chiefs re: Emergency Management and Civil Protection Act
BLAC calls on provincial and municipal governments to be proactive during this challenging time and commit to ensuring that the emergency measures are not misused and/or applied in a discriminatory manner. We strongly urge all levels of government to ensure that any...
An Open Letter to the University of Windsor
BLAC is deeply concerned about the ongoing anti-Black racism1 and racial profiling occurring on the University of Windsor campus and in the wider community. Since BLAC opened its doors to the public in March of 2019, we have become acutely aware, through work with our...
An Open Letter to Ministers re: Laval Immigration Holding Centre & Hunger Strike
The Black Legal Action Centre (BLAC) is a not-for-profit corporation incorporated under the laws of Ontario to combat individual and systemic anti-Black racism by providing legal services to members of Ontario’s diverse Black communities. We are writing this Open...
An Open Letter from BLAC on the state of human rights in Ontario
On January 14, 2020, Premier Doug Ford seemingly circumvented the provincial appointment process to appoint two people to sit as Commissioners with the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC). A Commissioner’s role is to govern the OHRC and to provide it with strategic...
BLAC Board of Directors’ Statement to Members and the Community
To the Members and Community of the Black Legal Action Centre The Black Legal Action Centre (BLAC) is a non-profit community legal clinic, funded by Legal Aid Ontario, with a mandate to provide free legal services for low-income Black residents of Ontario. BLAC’s...