This hotline is a 24-hour confidential telephone service for victims and survivors of human trafficking. It gives referrals to social services, law enforcement, and emergency services in multiple languages. And it also takes tips from the public.

This website lists some settlement organizations that help refugees across Ontario. For example, you might be able to get help with accessing housing, medical care, education, social assistance, and legal services.

The College of Immigration and Citizenship Consultants (CICC) keeps a registry of Immigration Consultants and International Student Immigration Advisors that they monitor. Use this registry to find out if a professional is registered with the CICC. You can also use it to check if an Immigration Consultant has any discipline issues.

The directory lists all lawyers and paralegals licensed to give legal services in Ontario. You can search by name, address or postal code, language, and area of law.

JusticeNet is a not-for-profit organization that can help people find legal services when their income is too high for legal aid and too low to afford legal fees. Their website has a list of lawyers, paralegals, and mediators who charge reduced fees based on your income and family size. You must register and pay a small fee to use their services.

The FCJ Refugee Centre has free services for refugees and newcomers who do not have a secure or permanent right to stay. The centre can: 

• help with paperwork, translation, and interpretation
• make referrals to immigration and refugee lawyers 
• provide immigration case management for youth 
• give information about social services, skills development, and counselling 

They also provide temporary shelter for women and children, free food distribution, a primary health clinic for people without insurance, women’s programs, a youth group, and English classes. 

The centre has free information sessions about refugee hearings and appeals.

The Law Society of Ontario has an online Law Society Referral Service that gives you the name of a lawyer or licensed paralegal who will give free legal advice for up to 30 minutes in any area of law.

If you cannot wait for a lawyer or paralegal to call you back, or if you do not have a call-back number, email lsrs@lso.ca. If you’re in crisis or in custody, call 1-855-947-5255 or 416-947-5255, Monday to Friday, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

The Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture (CCVT) is a community organization that helps newcomers with precarious status and victims of torture, war, genocide, and crimes against humanity. The Centre provides free:

• mental health counselling and support
• settlement services and English language and skills training
• child and youth programs

The CCVT can also arrange for professional mental health assessments and reports for use in immigration and refugee proceedings for newcomers with precarious status.

Legal Aid Ontario funds legal clinics across Ontario. There are two types of legal clinics: community legal clinics and specialty legal clinics.

Community legal clinics provide free legal services to people with low incomes who live in their area. Search for the clinic in your area using your postal code. Most help with:

• income assistance
• tenant rights
• employment problems

Some clinics can help with immigration and refugee problems or debt and consumer problems.

Some specialty legal clinics provide free legal services to specific groups of people with low incomes:

• Advocacy Centre for the Elderly
• Aboriginal Legal Services
• ARCH Disability Law Centre
• Black Legal Action Centre
• Centre Francophone du Grand Toronto
• Chinese and South Asian Legal Clinic
• Centre for Spanish Speaking Peoples
• HIV & AIDS Legal Clinic Ontario
• Justice for Children and Youth
• South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario

Some specialty legal clinics provide free legal services in only certain areas of law:

• Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario
• Canadian Environmental Law Association
• Income Security Advocacy Centre
• Industrial Accident Victims Group of Ontario (IAVGO) Community Legal Clinic
• Injured Workers Community Legal Clinic
• Workers Health and Safety Legal Clinic

The Workers’ Action Centre gives workers free information and advice. Call them to get:

• information about your rights at work
• help figuring out how to deal with an employment problem

You can use Service Canada’s telephone tip line to report abuse of temporary foreign workers.

The tip line is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. When you call, you can:

• leave a message with the information for Service Canada to investigate, or
• talk to a live Service Canada agent in one of more than 200 languages.

The centre gives free legal information and advice to people who have experienced discrimination. If you’re Indigenous, press 4 to reach the Indigenous Service intake staff. The centre can:

• help you fill out an application to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario
• give legal advice about how to deal with discrimination
• provide legal representation at mediations and hearings, in some situations

There is also an online tool that can help you figure out if your situation might be discrimination.

C.A.R.E for International Workers is a program for temporary foreign workers that’s sponsored by the Windsor-Essex Bilingual Legal Clinic. A number of organizations work together to provide free legal services, English classes, health services, settlement services, and more.

The Migrant Workers Alliance for Change supports migrants to stand up against bad bosses and fix problems with immigration. They advocate for better laws and fairness for migrant farm workers, care workers, students, and more.

The Agricultural Workers Alliance is a union for agricultural workers.

They’re associated with the United Food and Commercial Workers and help to organize farm workers in Canada. This includes helping workers negotiate their working conditions with their employers.