National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC)
SIKLAB-Ontario (Advance the rights and welfare of overseas Filipinos)
Media release

As the violence continues, the Live-in Caregiver Program still remains unquestioned

May 9, 2009

Toronto, ON – Filipino advocacy groups strengthen their call to abolish the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) as the experiences of Filipina domestic workers once again make it onto the front page of the Toronto Star. The groups identify the abuses suffered by the live-in caregivers in the home of Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla as a testament to the state-sanctioned modern-day slavery in Canada.

While the general public is busy condemning our provincial and federal parliamentarians in their complicity to this ongoing violence, SIKLAB-Ontario, a local migrant workers’ organization, and the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC) remind Canadians that the “Dhalla case” is beyond the isolated incidences of abusive high-profile employers. Rather, they encourage media and the public to interrogate the federal program itself, and investigate why the stories of Magdalene Gordo and Richelyn Tongson are common to all domestic workers employed through the LCP.

While both Gordo and Tongson were originally hired to care for the MP’s mother, the Dhalla family had allegedly “seized their passports” and “forced them to do non-nanny jobs such as washing cars, shining shoes and cleaning family-owned chiropractic clinics.” As more and more stories of “nanny abuse” cross the pages of mainstream print media, the Canadian public should examine the broader issues inherent within an anti-woman and racist program that is the LCP.

Kelly Botengan, spokesperson for SIKLAB and a former live-in caregiver, comments on the emerging uproar on the mistreatment of domestic workers in their employers’ homes. She states that narrowing the blame on particular individuals leaves the LCP unquestioned. “Working with precarious status, being a live-in caregiver is literally like holding onto a knife’s edge,” says Botengan. “The mechanisms within the program leaves us women so vulnerable to abuse.”

The LCP is one stream within the Temporary Foreign Workers Program that imports foreign labour in order to provide cheap private childcare, eldercare and care for people with disabilities. SIKLAB and NAPWC maintain the position in denouncing the LCP as Canada’s ‘de facto’ national childcare program, which, as a labour indentureship policy is also essential to the further privatization of healthcare in Canada.

“The hiring of two caregivers to attend to Dhalla’s elderly mother speaks of the inadequacy of the current health care system, as these women perform unregulated nursing duties with reduced wages,” states Botengan. “Worse, the program has allowed employers like Dhalla to fully take advantage of these women, violating their most basic human rights.”

From being trafficked through unscrupulous agencies, being forced to work outside the contract, to the sexual, physical and emotional abuses – the groups hold the Canadian government accountable to the documented human rights violations maintained and perpetuated through state policies.

“The story of Magdalene Gordo and Richelyn Tongson is the story of our community,” says Qara Clemente, a member of the Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance. “Not only are our women struggling from systemic violence and stalled economic mobility, but the marginalization of these women are also being passed on – one generation after the other.”

According to Statistics Canada, Filipinos are twice as more likely to have a university degree than the rest of the Canadian population, but generally have lower incomes than the national average. “It is of no surprise that the Filipino community as a whole is becoming increasingly marginalized in the face of barriers such as the lack of a foreign education accreditation process,” says Botengan, “which in turn forces many educated migrants to work in low-skill and low-paying jobs.”

Clemente also expresses how entire families going through such an experience unfortunately pass on these burdens even to the youth. “Majority of the children of former domestic workers are expected to supplement the family income instead of pursuing an education. While exploitative programs like the LCP continue to exist, the cycle of poverty and violence persist largely unexamined.”

As the controversy surrounding the “Dhalla case” escalates, SIKLAB and NAPWC reinforces their position to scrap the Live-in Caregiver Program, demanding an end to the violence and exploitation of women and migrant workers in Canada.

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For more information, contact Joy C. Sioson at 416-519-2553
siklab-on@magkaisacentre.org