Loly Rico is the president of the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants. She is married to Francisco Rico-Martinez, with whom she co-directs the

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

-based

Faithful Companions of Jesus The Faithful Companions of Jesus Sisters (FCJ Sisters, French: ''Fidèles compagnes de Jésus'') is a Christian religious institute of the Roman Catholic Church directly subject to the Pope. It was founded in Amiens in France in 1820 by Marie M ...

Refugee Centre. Rico and her family moved to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

refugee A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...

s in 1990 in order to escape

political repression Political repression is the act of a state entity controlling a citizenry by force for political reasons, particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing the citizenry's ability to take part in the political life of a society, thereby ...

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

. In 2004, the

Toronto City Council Toronto City Council is the governing body of the municipal government of Toronto, Ontario. Meeting at Toronto City Hall, it comprises 25 city councillors and the mayor of Toronto. The Toronto City Council 2022–2026, current term began on Nove ...

gave her the Constance E. Hamilton Award on the Status of Women. In 2008, Rico was given the Trevor Bartram Award by the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture. When

Joy Smith Joy Ann Smith (born February 20, 1947) is a Canadian politician. She served in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba between 1999 and 2003, and was in the House of Commons of Canada from 2004 to 2015. Education and business career Smith was born ...

released "Connecting the Dots", a proposal for the

National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking The National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking is a four-year action plan that was established by the Government of Canada on June 6, 2012 to oppose human trafficking in Canada. In 2004, the government's Interdepartmental Working Group o ...

, Rico criticized the proposal for being too focused on those who create the demand for sex trafficking, saying that it therefore did not sufficiently address victim rehabilitation. She recommended, therefore, that the proposal be amended to allow

human trafficking Human trafficking is the act of recruiting, transporting, transferring, harboring, or receiving individuals through force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose of exploitation. This exploitation may include forced labor, sexual slavery, or oth ...

victims to become permanent residents of Canada and therefore be better guarded against being trafficked again. Rico became the president of the

Canadian Council for Refugees The Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR; formerly known as the Standing Conference of Canadian Organizations Concerned about/for/with Refugees) is a Montreal-based non-governmental organization that critiques the Government of Canada's public polic ...

in 2012. In 2013, Rico remarked that, "unfortunately, the government has been closing the door on refugees." Specifically, she criticized

Jason Kenney Jason Thomas Kenney (born May 30, 1968) is a former Canadian politician who served as the 18th premier of Alberta from 2019 until 2022, and the leader of the United Conservative Party (UCP) from 2017 until 2022. He also served as the member o ...

Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Minister may refer to: * Minister (Christianity), a Christian cleric ** Minister (Catholic Church) * Minister (government), a member of government who heads a ministry (government department) ** Minister without portfolio, a member of government w ...

, for having promised that Canada would resettle more refugees from 2011-2012 than in previous years, but not following through on this promise; instead, there was a 26% drop in refugee resettlement in Canada during that period, hitting a 30-year low.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rico, Loly Refugees in Canada Canadian people of Salvadoran descent Salvadoran emigrants to Canada Naturalized citizens of Canada Salvadoran women Salvadoran Roman Catholics Canadian Roman Catholics Salvadoran women's rights activists Canadian women's rights activists Activists from Toronto Minority rights activists Anti-torture activists 20th-century births Living people Year of birth missing (living people)