Get involved in this exciting project!

We are looking for:

From Oct. 1st, 7pm to Oct. 2nd, 7am, we need about 14 volunteers for each of our four (4) 3-hour shifts:

• Shift 1: 7pm – 10pm
• Shift 2: 10pm – 1am
• Shift 3: 1am – 4am
• Shift 4: 4am – 7am

Roles and Duties (on-site training will be provided):

• 3 Gallery Facilitators
• 5 Table Facilitators
• 2 Security (Stairwell and washroom)
• 2 Refreshment Runners
• 2 Floaters
• 1 Media (Maintains Twitter feed)

If you are interested in volunteering please fill in the form below.

Toronto, ON – March 17, 2010 – Going beyond tokenizing traditional cultural performances and culinary treats, the Maleta (suitcase) Project aims to sew the experiences of the Filipino community together to weave a history of Filipino migration to Canada. Titled “End the Exploitation, March for Liberation: The Maleta Launch,” the opening show will focus on the theme of enhancing Filipino women’s equality, human rights and genuine development. Works will explore the issues, the struggles and the resistance Filipino women have exemplified in Canada. “From over 20 years of Filipino women’s organizing in Canada and 10 years here in Ontario, we can’t keep silent about the experiences of Filipino women” states Alleben Purugganan, Maleta’s Project Coordinator. “We have to acknowledge that as a community, the exploitation that is happening and we need to strive for our just and genuine settlement and integration in Canada,” she continues.

The Maleta project was originally held in Vancouver, but has now come to Toronto through the work of the Magkasia Centre. Rather than just being an exposé of different experiences, however, it is highly informed by the analysis produced by the organizing, community building, and advocacy work of the Philippine Women Centres across Canada. PWC is also the first and only Filipino women’s organization established outside the Philippines here in Canada. March 20^th will be the launching of this project, but it is planned to be a long-term effort.

On March 20^th, 2010, the exhibit will run from 5:00 PM to 8:30 PM at the International Student Centre, University of Toronto. The show will begin with a cultural performance by the newly-formed Sinag Bayan Ontario and will continue with speakers from the PWC-ON. Joy C. Sioson, the chairperson of PWC-ON, will share some of the milestones of Filipino women’s organizing in commemoration of the 10^th year anniversary of PWC-ON. Sioson will be followed by a keynote address by Cecilia Diocson, the Executive Director of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC), and speeches from artists and members of PWC-ON, Alleben Purugganan and Marissa Largo. Messages of solidarity will also be heard from members of the Kalayaan Centre in Vancouver, B.C. and the Kapit Bisig Centre in Montreal, QC. To guide the celebration, Aila Comilang and Danielle Bisnar, members of PWC-ON, will be hosting the fun-filled, informative night of mingling and art.

All are welcomed.

Please contact us about volunteering.

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“End the Exploitation: March for Liberation: The Maleta Launch”
Saturday, March 20, 2010
International Student Centre
University of Toronto St. George Campus
33 St. George Street
5:00 PM – 8:30 PM
Doors open at 5:00 PM, show starts at 5:30 PM

To confirm your attendance, please register:

Magkaisa Centre organizations:
Philippine Women Centre of Ontario
SIKLAB Ontario (Advance and Uphold the Struggles of Filipino Workers)
Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance—Ontario (UKPC/FCYA—ON)

Maleta (suitcase): Project Launch
When:Saturday, March 20, 2010
Where:University of Toronto, International Student Centre (33 St. George Street)

Come and join us for the arrival of the Maleta (suitcase) in Toronto.  The project launching will showcase some of the work of our Filipino community members discussing and unraveling the journal of migration of  Filipinos in Canada.

Featuring: A keynote from Cecilia Diocson, National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada Executive Director, and speakers Marissa Largo and Alleben Purugganan.

Filipino-Canadians await the arrival of the Maleta (Suitcase) in Toronto

Toronto, ON – On Saturday, March 20, 2010, Filipino workers, women, youth, and their allies will gather in anticipation for the arrival of the Maleta (“Suitcase”) Project launch, signaling the beginning of a groundbreaking grassroots arts initiative that unpacks the community’s rich history of migration and community-building. Entitled “End the Exploitation, March for Liberation,” the project launch will spark a dynamic and creative way of depicting the community’s struggles and legacy of empowerment. The launch will take place a few weeks after International Women’s Day, highlighting women’s struggles and resistance through a multi-media arts exhibit and a live cultural show.

The Magkaisa Centre, a community centre that houses progressive Filipino-Canadian organizations in Ontario, takes pride in welcoming the escalation of Maleta Project to a national level.  Initially from the Kalayaan Centre in Vancouver, the project has served as an inspiration to all Filipino-Canadians to embrace the community’s culture of resistance. “This month, the Magkaisa Centre will carry forward a historic project that will creatively depict the rich history and stories of our community in Canada,” announces Joy C. Sioson, Chairperson of the Philippine Women Centre of Ontario (PWC–ON).

John Nerier, a member of Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance–Ontario (UKPC/FCYA–ON) states that “the Maleta is our collective story. The project reclaims the power of art and culture in depicting the centrality of Filipino women’s issues in the struggles of the Filipino-Canadian community as a whole, and the resistance that Filipino women have mobilized to empower the entire community towards social change.”

The theme of “Enhancing Filipino Women’s Equality” shows the role of women as active creators and producers of their own history and innovators of various forms of creative expression. The night is one of the Magkaisa Centre’s first round of events to celebrate Philippine Women Centre of Ontario’s 10^th year anniversary. “Through art, we aim to bring the real struggles our women go through out to the rest of the community and to the mainstream Canadian society,” Aila Comilang, a member of PWC-ON and UKPC/FCYA stated.  “As women of colour who will no longer accept this ongoing marginalization and exploitation, we are taking on the active role of empowerment and in building a movement towards genuine women’s equality and liberation,” she continues.

The launch will feature an art exhibition created by members of the Magkaisa Centre. Live performances from the Sinag Bayan Ontario Cultural Collective and light refreshments will grace this evening of celebrating art and culture for the people.

“The Maleta Project launch is only the beginning in exercising the vision of an empowered Filipino community,” Sioson states. “We are more than just members of Canada’s multicultural mosaic. We are active participants who are entitled to our own voice in Canadian society.” Participants of the launching will get a glimpse of the Maleta Project, activities for which will continue throughout the entire year and will culminate in a final exhibit in October, in time for the 10^th year anniversary celebration of PWC–ON. The Maleta Project launch is yet another step towards the just and genuine settlement and integration of the Filipino-Canadian community.

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To confirm your attendance, please leave us your info:

No genuine national childcare until the Live-in Caregiver Program is scrapped, Magkaisa Centre organizations assert

Toronto, ON – February 10, 2010 – Despite a recent proposal by the Liberal Party to create a national childcare program, progressive Filipino Canadian organizations under the Magkaisa Centre express that the the ongoing exploitation and violence perpetuated by the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) renders the Liberal’s proposal an empty promise that falls short of genuinely fulfilling the childcare needs of all Canadians.

The Philippine Women Centre of Ontario, SIKLAB-ON (Advance and Uphold the Struggle of Filipino Workers) and the Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canda/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance – ON are wary of celebrating the announcement made by Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, and are instead calling for a critical examination of the proposal. Any initiative to create a national childcare program is not complete until the LCP, which the groups describe as Canada’s de facto national childcare program, is scrapped.

“What was not mentioned in Ignatieff’s recent announcement is the ongoing use of the LCP to meet Canada’s ever-pressing childcare and healthcare needs,” states Alleben Purugganan, member of the Philippine Women Centre of Ontario. In order to lure Filipino women, who compose 97% of workers in the LCP, to migrate as domestic workers to fulfill Canada’s childcare and healthcare needs, Citizenship and Immigration Canada offers them the promise of citizenship upon completion of the program. However,ongoing community research and organizing work has revealed that three years of working in exploitative conditions under precarious status proves to be a heavy price to pay for attaining permanent residency. Working under the LCP for most of these women results in their deskilling, poverty and psychological trauma. “Our women are essentially being legislated into poverty through the LCP,” says Bryan Taguba, member of SIKLAB–ON For over two decades, Filipino women, most of them professionals in the Philippines, have been working in private homes as caregivers and nannies, while each political party has failed to create a national childcare program that genuinely addresses the childcare needs of Canada. Childcare in Toronto has been chronically underfunded by the Federal government, with the City currently facing $63.5 million in childcare losses.

For over twenty years, the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada, SIKLAB-Canada and UKPC/FCYA-Canada has been calling for the scrapping of the Live-in Caregiver Program, demanding an end to this ongoing form of violence inflicted on Filipino women and on the rest of the community. Such a comprehensive campaign prompts the elimination of the demand for cheap foreign labour to fulfill the childcare needs of mostly middle and upper-class families. If the Liberals are able to implement a national childcare program while allowing the violence of the LCP to persist, they are, in effect, creating the conditions for a two-tiered childcare system wherein a few families are sanctioned to continue the exploitation of Filipino women by hiring them as nannies. The three organizations stress that only through the scrapping of the LCP will a national childcare system be truly accessible to all Canadians, regardless of income or status. “While Filipino-Canadian women continue to work in poverty and while their children continue to inherit that poverty, we must question the implementation of a so-called ‘national’ childcare program,” states Purugganan. “A genuine national childcare must not only be accessible to all Canadians, it must also be able to benefit all Canadians, regardless of race, class or gender,” she continues.

Another fact overlooked in Ignatieff’s recent announcement, as the groups identified, is how the LCP also contributes to the increasing privatization of healthcare in Canada. Aside from performing childcare duties, workers under the LCP also fulfill healthcare duties for the elderly, the sick and disabled. Many of these workers are also healthcare professionals in the Philippines. As a shortage of nurses and the chronic underfunding of the healthcare system looms in the face of a current economic crisis, the LCP provides a cheap alternative for addressing Canada’s healthcare needs. The organizations foresee that the “implementation of a national childcare program, alongside the continued existence of the LCP, will continue to funnel Filipino women to work as private nurses and caregivers for the elderly, the sick and the disabled.” Moreover, community advocates have already pointed out that the privatization of care in Canada, both in childcare and healthcare, continually falls short of ensuring efficient and equitable treatment for all taxpayers. “As the private sector reaps the benefits of the privatization of care, it is the public who largely bears the losses of the private sector’s investments and risks. If the Liberal party will run on a platform of social justice in the next Federal elections, it must provide an explanation for the ongoing privatization of healthcare in this country,” Puruggan adds. She emphasizes that for the hardest hit working-class population, “this problem must not be tolerated and cannot continue.”

The healthcare system in Canada, in its current state, is riding on the backs of the Filipino community, with Filipino domestic workers, PSWs, LCPs and nurses bearing the brunt of the burden. Despite their contributions, these workers have been effaced from current history by a lack of proper acknowledgement and compensation. While Filipinos continue to be funneled into poverty, de-skilled and stamped with temporary status, no political party will get the attention of our community unless they address our fundamental issues and concerns. “We will not be treated as voting banks by the Liberal party while the needs of our community’s settlement and integration have yet to be met,” states Mark Serrano, member of the Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance–Ontario (UKPC/FCYA-ON). The continued existence of a government program that dehumanizes the Filipino community must be challenged and opposed by all Canadians. Scrapping the LCP is essential to the creation of a genuine national childcare in Canada, and to the future of the Filipino-Canadian community.

Magkaisa Centre organizations:
Philippine Women Centre of Ontario
SIKLAB Ontario (Sulong Itaguyod ang mga Karapatan ng mga Manggagawang Pilipino sa Labas ng Bansa/Advance and Uphold the Struggle of Filipino Workers)
Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance–Ontario

For more information, please contact:
Kim Abis
(416) 519-2553
pwc-on@magkaisacentre.org
siklab-on@magkaisacentre.org
ukpc-on@magkaisacentre.org

Filipino youth, women and workers celebrate a night of resistance and empowerment

Toronto, ON – February 7, 2010 – Filipino youth, women, workers and allies, numbering over 150 people, raised their fists in unity and empowerment at Toronto’s first ever “Roots, Rhymes and Resistance,” entitled “Turning Up the Resistance!” The event was organized by Magkaisa Centre’s three organizations, and was held last December 12th 2009 at the Arbor Room in the University of Toronto.

It was night of cultural resistance expressed through poetry, hip hop, song and dance to “celebrate the active role we’re taking in advancing the community’s struggle in Canada,” says performer and event organizer Mike Yambao aka MC Lyrical Abstrakt. He explains that the participation of people from the different sectors of the community sharing the common aim of empowerment sets RRR apart from any other Filipino-focused events. From its humble beginnings at a café in Vancouver over a decade ago, RRR is a powerful means by which the community aims to take pride in their long and proud history of community organizing.

Members of the Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance–ON, SIKLAB–ON (a workers organization) and the Philippine Women Centre of Ontario (PWC–ON), the organizations under the Magkaisa Centre, are both thrilled and humbled by the overwhelming support they have received from the community. “The enthusiasm of volunteers, organizers and the crowd was inspiring. It felt amazing to see everyone, especially the youth, come together to explore our issues together through creative means,” states Aila Comilang, one of the night’s hosts.

Recognizing common struggles as racialized communities in Canada, solemnity and solidarity filled the room as the Macaw Hawk Youth Council opened RRR with a hand drum song and a hip hop performance. The rest of the night showcased a myriad of talents: from MC Dagamuffin, Dos Armados, Marylou David, and Beambeam de Pedro. Members of the Magkaisa Centre also sang a collective piece called “12 Years in Canada,” a song depicting the 12 years of struggle a woman goes through working under and after the Live-in Caregiver Program. High school students from Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Newman performed and volunteered at the event as well.

Now making up the fastest growing immigrant group in the country, Filipinos continue to remain within the fringes of the Canadian economic, political and civic life. Over the past years, the Magkaisa Centre has been educating, organizing and mobilizing the Filipino community towards a just and genuine settlement and integration in Canada. “RRR was a space where we creatively expressed our struggles as a marginalized community. Our shared stories of struggle have been the foundation of our art and cultural productions,” says Comilang. “When you think about it, it’s as if we’ve been collectively preparing for RRR all our lives,” she concludes.

Just recently, RRR organizers and new members met to set the stage for an even bigger, national Roots, Rhymes and Resistance in May 2010. RRR in May will also be part of the Centre’s year-long art and cultural program called the Maleta [suitcase] Project. As preparations come under way for Maleta and the upcoming RRR, the excitement and the positive response from the community speak of the need of more participatory and engaging initiatives – ones that not only explore the issues through dynamic and creative means, but also empower everyone to be part of a community that moves toward social change. As Yambao states, “Events like RRR is exactly what Filipino youth need to combat ignorance and apathy…I’m glad to have been a part of it.”

The progressive Filipino-Canadian community organizations of the Magkaisa Centre greet this New Year with courage and determination as we advance the struggle for the just and genuine settlement and integration of Filipino-Canadians. Through our efforts in educating, organizing and mobilizing the Filipino-Canadian community, including advocacy work, policy engagements, political campaigns and more, we remain steadfast in addressing the needs of our community as we continue to face ongoing forms of oppression and marginalization in Canada.

Filipino workers, women and youth all across Canada are awakening to the challenges of community-building, and are prepared to confront all the barriers we face, whether in the form of racist and anti-woman policies such as the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) or in its direct effects on our daily realities as an economically marginalized peoples. In this new year of 2010, the Filipino-Canadian community still refuses to remain silent.

We recognize that while the Filipino community has been present in Canada for 50 years, we still continue to face barriers that impede our settlement and integration. Despite the growing presence of a large Filipino population, currently numbering well over 500,000, we are rendered invisible by ongoing forms of racism, gender oppression, economic marginalization and social exclusion.

We are asserting that Filipino-Canadians are far more than just economic units who contribute to Canada’s labour needs. We are makers and doers of our own history as a peoples in Canada. The Magkaisa Centre’s organizations, with the cooperation and support of organizations in Kalayaan Centre in Vancouver and and the Kapit Bisig Centre in Montreal, are strongly united in actively challenging the systemic barriers that dehumanize the Filipino community.

The ongoing expansion of the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP), under the guise of legislative reforms by the Conservative minority government, keep us locked in economic shackles as we work in conditions that are akin to modern day slavery. As the shock of the current economic crisis deepens and permeates in the form of massive layoffs, cuts to the welfare system and the rise of regressive and divisive politics in all levels of government, those at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder, especially immigrants and working women, are the hardest hit.

With 65% of our community largely represented by women, we feel the immediate impacts of the economic crisis through lower wages, increasingly dangerous and casualized jobs, unemployment and worsening living conditions. The Filipino-Canadian community is not waiting for a bail-out package, nor are we likely to receive hand-outs from the government. The need for our just and genuine settlement and integration in Canada is ever pressing and always growing.

Central to this year is the celebration of the Philippine Women Centre of Ontario’s 10th year anniversary. As women, we are proud to celebrate a decade in the ongoing legacy of Filipino women’s organizing and resistance in Ontario. For over a decade, Filipino women across Canada have been struggling for genuine equality and liberation. This struggle has been marked with many challenges, as well as many gains, many of which have shaped the face of Filipino women’s organizing today. It is with the awareness of this history that we can empower Filipino women to take the necessary actions towards our emancipation and social liberation.

2010 will also see the launching of the Maleta Project in Toronto, a community-based arts project that aims to portray the story of our migration through the form of art. The Maleta Project focuses on creating art that is not only grounded in the community, but also aims to challenge our reality through collective and creative ways.

Building on the success of the launching of Roots, Rhymes and Resistance in Toronto, last December 12, 2009, Filipino youth will gather and collaborate with other Filipino-Canadian groups to celebrate our rich culture of resistance at the first ever national Roots, Rhymes and Resistance. Youth all across Canada are ready to address our issues through empowering and innovative ways. Armed with the culture of resistance, we are responding to the challenges of facing systemic barriers on a national level.

With even greater determination and fervor as community organizers, we are committed to carrying the struggle of our community forward in this New Year and onwards. We will not simply wait for piecemeal changes while the community continues to face systemic barriers in their daily lives. This new year, the Filipino-Canadian community will be relentless in bringing about the much needed change that we have always longed for.

With strong determination and unity, we will move forward to a bright and prosperous new year!
Magkaisa tayo, towards a just and genuine settlement and integration!

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Magkaisa Centre Organizations:
Philippine Women Centre of Ontario
SIKLAB Ontario (Sulong, Itaguyod ang mga Karapatan ng mga Manggagawang Pilipino sa Labas ng Bansa/Advance the Struggle of Filipino Workers)
Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance–Ontario

For more information, please contact:
(416) 519-2553
pwc-on@magkaisacentre.org
siklab-on@magkaisacentre.org
ukpc-on@magkaisacentre.org