Toronto, ON — On this National Day of Action to Drop Tuition Fees, members of the Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance—Ontario (UKPC/FCYA-ON) stand in solidarity with the Canadian Federation of Students and all students as we demand to drop tuition fees and student debt and to advance our entitlement towards universally accessible post-secondary education in Canada. As students who come from a marginalised community, the high cost and unabated increase of tuition fees not only denies us our right to education, but also presents a major barrier that prevents us from genuinely settling, integrating and successfully participating in Canadian society.

With the onslaught of Canada’s neoliberal agenda, as seen through the rabid implementation of austerity measures and cutbacks on public and social services, public funding for universities are unabashedly slashed in favour of the deregulation of higher education, all for the sake of corporate interests and profitability. As these measures intensify the privatization and corporatization of public education, it is not a coincidence that tuition fees have skyrocketed to almost 10% on average within the past two years and continue to rise. Currently, student debt in Canada amounts to $15 billion, a staggering figure which reveals that most students are sentenced to a life of debt and economic uncertainty.

In Ontario alone, students pay the highest tuition fees in Canada—numbering $6,640 per year on average—a 244% increase from what students used to pay 20 years ago. To quell growing dissatisfaction amongst students, Premier Dalton McGuinty garnered support by making education central to his political platform and touted his announcement to provide 30% tuition cuts, a move that privileges benefits for middle-class students. Only 1/3 of all eligible students will receive the 30% reduction. Instead of implementing policy changes to increase provincial budget in education and reduce tuition fees altogether, the provincial Liberal government chose to implement band-aid solutions to address this growing crisis. In line with the politics of distraction, this move is nothing more than an effort to pit students against each other by privileging the needs of certain groups of students over others. McGuinty’s promise is rendered meaningless by those students who need tuition cuts the most: such as part-time students who come from working-class backgrounds, mature students and single mothers who struggle to make ends meet.

For Filipino Canadians, the high cost of post-secondary education presents harsher realities that affect the community at large. Starting from the non-accreditation of foreign educational credentials and non-recognition of previous professional training, Filipino Canadians and other racialised immigrants are often stuck in dead-end, low-paying jobs, thus making post-secondary education even more difficult to access. Worse, for temporary foreign workers under the Live-in Caregiver Program, the issue of accessibility does not even factor into the equation as downright policy restrictions prohibit them from taking educational upgrading courses.

As the older generation of Filipino Canadians has limited access to post-secondary education, it is then no surprise that the youth and students are further pushed into the margins as they inherit the community’s cycle of poverty. Often required to work to support and supplement their families’ incomes, Filipino Canadian youth alongside previous generations are streamlined to become Canada’s permanent sources of cheap labour. Academic and community-based research has shown that Filipino Canadian youth experience staggering rates of downward social mobility, and now have one of the highest high school drop-out rates in major cities such as Vancouver and Montreal. These form the crux of the social, economic and financial barriers that Filipino Canadian youth continue to face in accessing education.

We, members of the Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance—Ontario, assert our position that education should be a basic right and not a privilege for the few. We will continue to expose and oppose any government’s neoliberal efforts to slash public funding in education that prevent marginalised individuals and communities from fully participating in Canadian society. Together with all racialised, marginalised and working class students and communities, we will march forward and continue our fight to make education accessible to all towards our genuine development as individuals and as a society.

Drop the fees! Eliminate tuition fees and student debt now!
Stop the privatization of public education!
Onwards with the demand for accessible education!
Advance the movement for genuine settlement and integration!

-30-

For more information, contact:
Kenneth Santos
(416) 519-2553
ukpc-on@magkaisacentre.org
www.magkaisacentre.org
Facebook and Twitter: ugnayanontario

The Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance, Philippine Women Centre of BC and SIKLAB for Migrant Workers condemn the racist acts of neo-Nazi group Blood and Honour for setting a young Filipino man on fire while sleeping on a couch on Commercial Drive in 2009. We hold Canada’s legal and policing system accountable for not acting fast enough to penalize and dissolve the white supremacist group. On Feb. 13, during the hearing of the men charged with burning the Filipino man, Filipino Canadians will take to the streets in protest of the racist acts.

Despite being the third largest minority group in Canada, Filipino youth are faced with racist systemic barriers and limited access to resources in Canada. Education obtained in the Philippines is often not recognized, pushing college kids back to high school upon arriving in Canada. There are few public services that integrate Filipinos successfully while being culturally-sensitive to the realities and struggles of migration.

In the case children of Filipino nannies entering Canada through the Live-in Caregiver Program, reunification with their families occurs 5 to 15 years after being separated. Depression and anxiety are prevalent in the Filipino community due to separation from family and isolation. Because of meager earnings and unrecognized qualifications by the Canadian state, poverty amongst first generation Filipinos permeates into future generations to create a legacy of poverty. As a result, Filipino youth are overrepresented in escalating high school and post-secondary drop-out rates, low-income communities, and service sector jobs.

Racism and class oppression of people of colour still exists. Canada has and continues to be built on the backs of exploited immigrant communities. These forms of systemic racism and violence that the educational, immigration and labour systems have imposed on Filipino Canadians have marginalized Filipino communities since the 1980s, when foreign credentials became invalidated and Filipinos were streamlined into the Live-In Caregiver Program (LCP). Today, Filipinos are reduced to “working horses,” or as Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has said, “economic units.”

Canada’s history is muddled with racist policies such as the colonization and genocide of First Nations people, the Chinese Head Tax, the Japanese internment during WWII, the refusal of entry to Indian refugees on the Komagatu Maru ship in 1914 and the recent Sri Lankan refugees on the MV Sun Ship in the summer of 2010. Through these race-based policies, the state has effectively sowed an anti-immigrant sense into Canadians.

Filipino communities have also faced a history of racism and violence in Canada, with the banning of Filipino youth at the Scarborough Town Center in 1993, the hate graffiti and physical violence against Filipino youth at the Vancouver Technical School in 1999, and the deaths of two young Filipino men, both sons of nannies who entered Canada under the LCP. Mao Jomar Lanot was a victim of school bullies at Vancouver’s Sir Charles Tupper Elementary in 2003 and Jeffrey Reodica was shot to death in the back by two plain-clothed Toronto police officers in 2004. Filipino youth have been targets of police brutality and racial profiling, as they are immediately labeled as gang members.

In 1999 following the racist dismissal of Filipino students from Van Tech, the Kalayaan Centre formed a group named “Filipino-Canadians Against Racism” dedicated to exposing and opposing Canada’s racist policies, empowering the community and uniting marginalized groups towards a common goal of genuine equality and participation. It is both timely and urgent that we need a resurgence of activism and organizing in the community so that we are not complacent, but are proactive and not reactive to racist events.

The blatant acts of racism committed by Blood and Honour show how systemic racism trickles down to an individual level and pervades everyday life. That the Crown charged Alistair Miller and Robert de Chazal two long years after brutalizing the young Filipino man on Commercial Drive is an act of racism and discrimination in itself. We refuse the racist policies Canada maintains to oppress our community and subject them to violence! We demand full entitlement and equal rights, refusing to be Canada’s underclass! It is our human right to build our homes and root ourselves in Canadian society!

Join us in protest of all forms of racism on Feb. 13, 2012 at 9 a.m., in front of the Vancouver Provincial Court on 222 Main St.

End systemic racism!
Scrap the Live-in Caregiver Program! Status upon arrival!
End family separation!
Equal rights for all!
Oppose economic inequality!

Contact info: pwcofbc@gmail.com | info.ukpc.bc@gmail.com
Phone: 604.215.1103
FB: Ugnayan Ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada|Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance BC
Twitter: @ugnayanbc
Website: http://www.kalayaancentre.net/

Toronto, ON – The Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC) denounces Minister Jason Kenney’s blatantly racist and repressive ban on wearing any type of face covering while taking the oath during the citizenship ceremony, a policy that represents a direct attack of hatred and Islamophobia towards Muslim women who choose to wear the burqa or niqab. This ban against Muslim women represents the latest abuse of power from Citizenship and Immigration Canada, whose recent string of announcements and policy changes have all been directed towards denying the successful settlement and integration of immigrant communities in Canada on all fronts—whether cultural, economic, social and political—while upholding the economy’s continued reliance on racialized and marginalized communities.

While Kenney’s burqa ban is nothing more than a racist denial of an entire people’s cultural practices, he has otherwise justified this ban as a “straightforward” matter of practice, saying that “I have received complaints from members of Parliament, from citizens, from judges of the citizenship court that it is hard to ensure that individuals, whose faces are covered, are actually reciting the oath.” Such top-down and undemocratic directives, based on complaints from within the federal government and citizenship court’s professional elites, are clear indications of the Conservative government’s denial and hostility towards Canada’s racialized populations.

Not only does the ban run against Canada’s basic values of democracy and equality, it is moreover an assertion of power that seeks to determine what practices are correct and incorrect based on assimilationist values. To raise arguments of fear and mistrust, based on the observation that you cannot tell or see if a fellow Canadian is swearing an oath, is insufficient grounds to reject anyone’s citizenship status, especially after they have successfully met all the requirements. Such requirements include: having a basic knowledge of Canada; speaking one of the official languages; and having lived and worked in Canada for three years out of five. Such pretenses of denying citizenship based on mere observation must instead be exposed as a racist act meant to discourage newcomers from acquiring their citizenship rights and to deny their contributions as participants in Canadian society.

With Canada’s Muslim population numbering about 3 percent of the population and with over 150,000 new immigrants being admitted into the country every year, the face of Canada will continue to change. Statistics Canada estimates that by 2031, one in three persons within the labour force will be born in a foreign country. Official policy towards immigrants and racialized peoples, however, continues to prevent their full participation in Canadian society. Amidst heavy-handed and punitive actions such as the burqa ban, we must seriously begin to scrutinize a state multiculturalism that, on the one hand, acknowledges diversity on paper, yet on the other, is used to justify racist and anti-immigrant practices as perpetuated by government policy. In light of recent developments, we must understand the actions taken by the Conservative government as part of a tactic to divide the Canadian working-class, deny citizenship, maintain temporariness and to spark anti-immigrant sentiments while pushing forward austerity measures as part of the neoliberal agenda.

Counter to the principles of “openness and equality,” as Kenney has stated, the ban has instead alienated and stripped Muslim women of their rights and made the Muslim community a target for attack. The flood of racist remarks and comments sparked by Kenney’s action throughout online news outlets reminds us to refuse the threat of inequality and divisiveness that pits our communities against each other while distorting our common interests as members of the working-class. Dictating our manner of dress, the rights we are entitled to and the extent to which we can participate in Canadian society is tantamount to stifling our genuine development and the potential of a truly multicultural and equal society.

As progressive Canadians, we must condemn the recent actions implemented by the Conservative government for they continue to perpetuate violence against fellow working-class Canadians and future citizens of this country. Members of the CPFC will continue to advance the struggle for the just and genuine settlement and integration of all immigrant communities towards our full participation and full entitlement as contributors to Canadian society.

-30-

Organizations under the CPFC:
National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC)
SIKLAB-Canada (Advance and Uphold the Struggle of Filipino Canadian Workers)
Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance – National
Sinag Bayan Arts Collective – National
Philippines-Canada Task Force on Human Rights (PCTFHR)

For more information, contact:
Reuben Sarumugam
(416) 519-2553
ukpc-on@magkaisacentre.org
www.magkaisacentre.org
Twitter and Facebook: ugnayanontario

Maleta Stories tags hang outside Centre for International Experience to create a web of migration

This dynamic and interactive two-part exhibit brought to the fore the vital role played by transnational communities in propelling Toronto’s development as Canada’s economic engine. At the venue, thousands of visitors were invited to record their own “Maleta Story” of migration on baggage tags and hang them onto strings jutting out from the building, thus adding to a web that chronicled Canada’s economic development through the contributions of immigrants. Visitors drawn inside experienced the Filipino Canadian community’s history of struggle and resistance as depicted through various community-based art pieces. One participant stressed, “It is important that we all acknowledge the hardship of the Filipino Canadians as not enough people are aware of it.”

Reading maleta stories

As expressed by arts educator and PhD candidate Marissa Largo, the project’s leading artist, “Maleta Stories was intended to emotionally engage the public by reflecting on stories of migration, either their own or of others’. This speaks to the power of art to move people emotionally and it is this emotion that can lead to action. Contemporary art is more powerful and meaningful when it is connected to a larger social cause, such as the genuine settlement and integration of not only Filipino Canadians, but for all who call Canada home.”

Visitors view the Kapit Bisig Maletas (Link Arms Suitcases)

Members of the Filipino Canadian community were deeply moved as they were empowered with the knowledge that their voices were finally being heard and that “Maleta Stories” affirmed their presence in and contributions to Canada. “We’ve been making our mark here in Toronto and it’s about time that other people recognize who we are as a community. We have to continue and make sure that no Maleta story will be left untold,” said one participant and Magkaisa Centre member.

Singkil Web, representing the Filipino Canadian community's history of migration

While “Maleta Stories” proved to be a huge success and a landmark step towards visibility in the mainstream Canadian cultural collective, the Magkaisa Centre reminds Filipino Canadians that our contributions in struggling for genuine settlement and integration will continue to enrich our roots in our new home.

-30-

Visit our Flickr for more photos!
Watch the Magkaisa Centre’s Claymation project!

For more information, contact:
Mervyn Mabini or Bryan Taguba
(416) 519-2553
ukpc-on@magkaisacentre.org
www.magkaisacentre.org
Facebook & Twitter: ugnayanontario

Along with Filipino Canadian artist, educator and PhD candidate, Marissa Largo, the Magkaisa Centre, a progressive Filipino Canadian community centre, will interactively have visitors of “Maleta Stories” unpack their own stories of migration to weave a collective history of Canada as home to transnational communities. “Maleta Stories” will make visible the web of migration that has been weaved by Canada’s economic needs as a first-world nation.

As each Maleta story hangs on strings attached to the Centre for International Experience, a British colonial-style building, it will take participants inside the Filipino Canadian community’s history of struggle and resistance. An exhibition of community-based art, “Maleta Stories” will also feature the Kapit Bisig Maletas (Linked Arms Suitcases), a ten-piece suitcase that represents various members of the Filipino Canadian community, along with a claymation project, created by Filipino Canadian youth, that depicts their collective experiences of settling and integrating into Canada.

Visitors of “Maleta Stories” are bound to experience an evocative glimpse into the realities and possibilities of a distinct and transformative culture of resistance as created by the transnational Filipino Canadian community. It will share their perspectives in viewing and creating art that, not only witnesses, but, contributes to social change. In the midst of confronting their realities of marginalization in Canadian society, the Filipino Canadian community, through the arrival of the Maleta, will proudly showcase a unique new culture that will usher in their full participation and entitlement as contributors to their new home.

-30-

“Maleta Stories: An Independent Project for Scotia Bank’s Nuit Blanche”
Art exhibit by Marissa Largo and the Magkaisa Centre
The Centre for International Experience at the University of Toronto
33 St. George Street, Toronto, ON (Spadina and College)
Saturday, October 1 at 7:00pm – October 2 at 7:00am
Free admission
Visit http://bit.ly/mkcnuitblanche for more details

For more information, contact:
Bryan Taguba or Mervyn Mabini
(416) 519-2553
ukpc-on@magkaisacentre.org
www.magkaisacentre.org
Facebook & Twitter: ugnayanontario

Screening tomorrow at 313 Student Centre, York University from 2:30 – 4:30 PM. See you there!

In partnership with distinguished community artist, educator and PhD candidate Marissa Largo, the Magkaisa Centre will showcase “Maleta Stories,” a multi-media art installation that will feature pieces from the groundbreaking Maleta Project. Participatory in style and content, “Maleta Stories” will provide a venue for all participants to share their stories of migration to Canada and evoke a sense of historical inclusion. The installation will weave into unison the vast array of narratives and histories of all peoples who have come to Canada in order to create a family tree of migration.

Unlike any typical art installation, each “Maleta” piece to be displayed will depict the migration, realities, struggles and resistance of the Filipino Canadian community against the intensifying social, economic and political exclusion they face in Canadian society. “As Toronto has the largest population of Filipino Canadians, numbering well over 250,000, the arrival of Maleta at Toronto’s Nuit Blanche is our collective assertion that as the third largest visible minority group in Canada, we refuse to be continuously rendered invisible in Canadian society,” says Bryan Taguba, community artist and a member of SIKLAB–Ontario, a Filipino Canadian workers organization.

For fifty years now, the Filipino Canadian community has been struggling to genuinely settle and integrate into Canadian society. As they are rendered to a state of permanent impermanence by anti-worker and racist labour policies, such as the Live-in Caregiver Program and the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, unpacking their “Maleta Stories” at Nuit Blanche will instead speak about their true aspirations to successfully take root and build a home in Canada.

Building upon its initial success as the first Filipino Canadian community art exhibit in Ontario, the Maleta Project continues on its journey to redefine the essence of art and culture into tools for social change and transformation. A first in the history of the Filipino Canadian community, this event signifies the community’s strengthening national movement towards genuinely settling, integrating and fully participating in Canadian society.

“Being part of Nuit Blanche is a milestone in our history of community-building and organizing. It will shatter our invisibility and present the reality that we are just as much part of Canadian society as we are active makers of Canadian history,” says Kristoph Aban, a member of the Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance—Ontario. “We are very proud and excited to be the first progressive Filipino Canadian community organization to be featured at an internationally-renowned art event,” adds Aban.

The “Maleta” (Suitcase) Art Exhibit will unravel the rich culture of resistance of progressive Filipino Canadians. Its arrival will reignite and reawaken the role of art and culture in transforming the lives of the most oppressed and marginalized sectors of Canadian society. Unpacking our “Maleta Stories” at Nuit Blanche will signal the continuing journey onto reclaiming art and culture from the perspective of the working class in Canada.

-30-

“Maleta Stories: An Independent Project for Scotia Bank’s Nuit Blanche”
Art exhibit by Marissa Largo and the Magkaisa Centre
The Centre for International Experience at the University of Toronto
33 St. George Street, Toronto, ON (Spadina and College)
Saturday, October 1 at 7:00pm – October 2 at 7:00am
Free admission
Visit http://bit.ly/mkcnuitblanche for more details

For more information, contact:
Bryan Taguba or Mervyn Mabini
(416) 519-2553
ukpc-on@magkaisacentre.org
www.magkaisacentre.org
Facebook & Twitter: ugnayanontario

Organizations under the Magkaisa Centre:
Philippine Women Centre of Ontario
Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada / Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance-Ontario (UKPC/FCYA-ON)
SIKLAB Ontario (Sulong Itaguyod Mga Karapatan ng Mga Pilipino sa Labas ng Bansa/Advance and Uphold the Struggle of Filipino Canadian Workers)
Sinag Bayan Arts and Culture Collective

Through an interactive dialogue with students, campus allies and community members, Emmanuel Sayo, from the Philippines Canada Task Force on Human Rights (PCTFHR – a member organization of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians) exposed Canada’s neoliberal agenda by sharing its history from the perspective of progressive Filipino Canadians. Through a historical materialist perspective, the lecture traced Canada’s history as white settler state, emphasizing that its expansion necessitated the presence and systemic subjugation of racialized communities to become permanent sources of cheap labour. Contextualized through the experiences of the Filipino Canadian community, Canada’s 3rd largest visible minority group and largest source of live-in caregivers and temporary foreign workers, the lecture provided the foundational knowledge for participants to understand neoliberalism and the context of the commodification and racialization of labor in Canada. Most importantly, its call for the just and genuine settlement and integration for Filipino Canadians is a demand to eradicate the cycle of importing and deporting racialized cheap labour.

As members of the Filipino Canadian community are constantly attacked by Canada’s neoliberal regressive economic policies to become its pool of cheap and dispensable labour, Filipino Canadian youth inherit the poverty and economic marginalization of the entire Filipino Canadian community. “We can no longer ignore the issue of neoliberalism and the intensifying class exploitation we experience as racialized working-class youth in Canada,” says Charie Siddayao, a UKPC@York member and undergraduate student.

The public lecture examined the need to help reclaim the progressive movement in Canada and brought out the need to build genuine solidarity with other progressive groups and individuals in order to end the oppression and exploitation faced by racialized peoples and the working-class.

“As students in the academia, we are often exposed to theories that are not grounded in the lived experiences and realities of the working class in Canada. Therefore it is crucial to apply theory into practice and intensify our community-based activism as progressive Filipino Canadian youth and students. As we have learned from the lecture, Marxist theory strives for the emancipation of the most oppressed and marginalized peoples of society, it is not intended to be purely an academic exercise for a privileged few,” says Ken Santos, a fourth year Political Science student.

Since neoliberal expansion and the systemic subjugation of racialized peoples go hand in hand, progressive Filipino Canadian youth and students assert that the advancement of the struggle for the just and genuine settlement and integration of the Filipino Canadian community will continually expose the neoliberal agenda of globalization. In this process, progressive Filipino Canadians strengthen their resolve to reclaim the progressive movement from the perspective of the working-class. The success of the lecture series undeniably exemplified the commitment of progressive Filipino Canadian youth and students to the struggle for the full entitlement and participation of the working-class and racialized peoples in Canada

UKPC’s lecture series will continue on March 5th, 2011, in its second public lecture “Reclaiming the Revolutionary Road towards Women’s Liberation.” The second public lecture will further deepen the analysis of all progressive individuals to understand that the liberation of all women is fundamental towards genuine social change and transformation.

-30-

Check out our photos on Flickr!

For more information, contact:
Aila Comilang
(416) 519-2553
ukpc-on@magkaisacentre.org
www.magkaisacentre.org
Facebook: Ugnayan Ontario
Twitter: ugnayanontario

Toronto, ON—February 9, 2011 – Packed with fresh content grounded in a community context, a new lecture series by UKPC@York (Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance–Ontario @ York) is sure to enlighten, empower and entice the minds of youth, students and educators. The 1st lecture, “Exposing Canada’s Neoliberal Agenda: The Context Behind the Commodification and Racialization of Labour in Canada” will take place at York University’s Stong College, Room 302 on Wednesday, February 16th from 6:00 – 8:00 PM. A dynamic lecture by Emmanuel Sayo, from the Philippines Canada Task Force on Human Rights (PCTFHR) – a member of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians, will expose the implications of Canada’s neoliberal expansion on racialized communities and the broader Canadian society.

The lecture will explore Canada’s racist history as a white-settler nation, whose process of nation-building has relied on immigration policies and exclusionary laws that have relegated people of colour as permanent sources of cheap labour. From the Chinese head tax to today’s Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP), the lecture will show how such policies have inhibited the successful settlement and integration of racialized communities.

As the lecture will demonstrate, the perspectives of those omitted from Canadian history actually reveal much about its ongoing reality. “We must not separate the experiences of racialized peoples in Canada from the whole globalpolitical context of neoliberalism. Also, we must not simply put the experiences and realities of people of colour into the box of ‘immigration issues’ without being critical of Canada’s neoliberal policies of privatization, liberalization and deregulation,” Sayo says.

Such an understanding is crucial for racialized youth. “As youth and students, it is important for us to grasp our history in order to make ourselves count in Canada’s future,” says Charie Siddayao, UKPC@York member and undergraduate student.

Delivered with clarity and progress in word and in action, UKPC@York’s upcoming lecture series will be sure to advance the Filipino Canadian community’s role as makers and innovators of their own histories.

-30-

“Exposing Canada’s Neoliberal Agenda:
The Context Behind the Commodification and Racialization of Labour in Canada”
1st part of UKPC@York’s public lecture series
Guest lecturer Emmanuel Sayo, Philippines Canada Task Force on Human Rights (PCFTHR)
Stong College, Room 302, York University
4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario
Wednesday, February 16th, 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Free to the public

For more information, contact:
Aila Comilang
416-519-2553
ukpc-on@magkaisacentre.org
www.magkaisacentre.org
Facebook: Ugnayan Ontario
Twitter: ugnayanontario

On November 10th, 2010, two articles were published by Macleans’ Magazine and the Toronto Star newspaper fuelled anti-immigrant sentiments and racism, titled as “‘Too Asian’?: Worries that efforts in the U.S. to limit enrolment of Asian students in top universities may migrate to Canada” and “Educators encourage parents of Asian background to let their children study trades and arts,” respectively. The Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance–Ontario (UKPC/FCYA–ON), a progressive organization of Filipino Canadian youth and students, recognize that the articles fuel anti-immigrant sentiments and racism while masking the genuine concerns and issues that plague post secondary education and its students. Without a clear understanding of the social, political and economic situation of racialized communities in Canada, the experiences of Asian Canadian students are then seen within a vacuum devoid of a larger systemic context. The articles are not only examples of irresponsible and bad journalism, but they also represent propaganda that perpetuate racism, irrational anxiety and fear.

As the lessons of history have taught us, pitting white Canadians against immigrants of colour has been an all-too-classic tactic for carrying out racism in Canada. Reading the articles within this context starkly reveals even more pressing and prevalent issues: a full-time domestic student already pays exuberant amounts for post-secondary education, with Ontario having the highest tuition fees in the country. Despite years of student mobilizing, education remains as one of the last priorities of the province. Consequently, higher education becomes increasingly inaccessible to working-class and racialized communities in Canada. This is evident in the low enrolment, retention and graduation rates of disabled youth, Aboriginals, Blacks, Latinos and Asians, especially for those with refugee status who are required to pay international fees. Ironically enough, the recruitment for international students has become more vigorous as universities aim to play a larger role within neoliberal globalization. University administrations’ recruitment trips to Israel, India and East Asia are active efforts to yield higher profit through international tuition fees, consequently securing the role of Canadian universities as producers of neoliberal thought and commerce.

For the Filipino Canadian community, the stories behind the articles are all too familiar. We surely recognize that complaints of Asian youth stealing university spots and making academic institutions “too Asian” are in fact extensions of something far more dangerous. Such complaints are clear examples of racist and anti-immigrant sentiments, whose topsy-turvy logic condemn the struggles of immigrants and migrants for adequate livelihood and landed status simply as “foreigners stealing jobs from North Americans.” Aggressive recruitment techniques to attract international students are implemented by universities, similar to Canada’s continued importation of highly skilled, yet cheap labour from the Global South through Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP), Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SAWP) and The Live-In Caregiver Program (LCP). Such actions are fuelled by specific economic and political agendas. Therefore, it is sheer irresponsibility on the part of Macleans and Toronto Star to blindly miss out on the fact that the state has always used and excluded racialized bodies to build a globally competitive Canada. Let us not forget those who have been recruited from outside the country to construct and maintain our campuses, and to take care of and clean the homes of middle and upper class Canadian families.

The Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance–Ontario, whose mothers, sisters and cousins make up 95% of domestic workers in Canada, knows this all too well. By simple virtue of the women who have toiled under the LCP, insinuations within the articles of “Asians” having unhindered access to post secondary institutions and higher learning are proven to be wrong. Work permits of Filipino Canadians under the LCP specifically state their ineligibility to attend post-secondary education, even for those teachers and nurses who are then consequently deskilled and relegated to low-paying service sector jobs. Alarmingly enough, Filipino Canadian youth inherit this cycle of poverty and exclusion as proven by the high drop-out rates of our youth in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

Youth coming from struggling communities of colour and low-income families face greater economic barriers than other prospective Canadian students. Contrary to the articles’ without accumulating large loan debts. For immigrant children, enrolling in traditionally recognized fields of study and occupations is not simply a choice. Instead, we are further motivated by instinctive survival strategies in the face of de-skilling and discrimination. Instead of promoting backwards sentiments of Asians being “too hardworking,” both print media and universities, as shapers of educators of Canadian minds, have a responsibility to demythicize such pathologizing claims.

According to the Maclean’s article, diversity enriches, but threatens the heterogeneity of the institutions of education itself on ethnic lines, and attempts to support this claim by referring to the segregation of the student body and the specified mandatory ethnic margins a university should follow or have. While the Canadian government and universities continue to promote and encourage diversity and multiculturalism, we would rather ask, “diversity for whom?” What is this irrational fear from the “too Asian” rhetoric diverting our attention from? Multiculturalism has played a crucial role in advancing Canada’s neoliberal agenda, as its contradictions are felt in the everyday lives of working-class and racialized communities. For universities, institutions, cities and the nation as a whole, multiculturalism has functioned as a major selling point as it has welcomed and streamed communities for particular cultural, political and economic uses.

We, UKPC/FCYA–ON and our sister organizations, the Philippine Women Centre of Ontario and SIKLAB Ontario, are adamantly angered and unimpressed at the writings published by Maclean’s magazine and the Toronto Star newspaper. Such writings promote racist attitudes and fuel antagonism within universities, while preventing solidarity to strengthen amongst marginalized communities along anti-neoliberal and anti-racist lines. We will continue to be steadfast and sharp in dismantling the frivolous efforts of the mainstream print media in perpetuating racism and backwards ideas and we will be quick to expose and oppose the continued attacks on communities of colour in Canada. Together with other racialized and working-class communities in Canada, we intensify our fight to assert that education remains to be a basic right for everyone – education that is useful for achieving our full potential and one that aids the advancement of our communities.

-30-

For more information, contact:
Kim Abis or Reuben Sarumugam
(416) 519-2553
ukpc-on@magkaisacentre.org
www.magkaisacentre.org

Register for the Conference

The “Maleta” (suitcase) breaks new ground: the first-ever Filipino Canadian Art Exhibit in Ontario

Toronto, ON (October 20, 2010) – Members of the Filipino Canadian community take great pride in organizing the first-ever Filipino Canadian art exhibit made for and by Filipino Canadian women, workers and youth. Held at the renowned Beit Zatoun House in Toronto on October 10, 2010, the opening of the art exhibit drew in and impressed more than 140 community members, friends and allies.

As the first-ever Filipino Canadian art exhibit in Ontario, the event is another milestone in the history of the community in Canada. Coinciding with the 10^th year anniversary celebration of the Philippine Women Centre of Ontario, the success of the Grand Maleta Art Exhibit is a manifestation of the growth of the Filipino Canadian community, as well as a decade of strong organizing efforts by the PWC-ON in leading and advancing the struggles of the community in Canada.

“The mere fact that we are able to create art pieces that directly convey the lived realities of our community and simultaneously celebrate the 10^th year anniversary of PWC-ON is symbolic of our growth, dynamism, maturity and creativity as an organization and as a community,” says Kim Abis, a member of PWC-ON and Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance-Ontario.

While depicting the history, lived realities and struggles of the Filipino Canadian community, the Maleta art exhibit unleashes the community’s resistance and unrelenting will to attain a better future in Canadian society. “Tonight was indeed a historical one for our community. Not only were we able to convey our struggles in an art form, but it was also a night that brought together the voices of our community, a night where everyone embraced the resiliency and courageousness of our women to stand strong and continue our history of resistance,” says Joy C. Sioson, Chairperson of PWC-ON.

The event was filled with enthusiasm and militancy as artists, performers and community members celebrated through inspiring speeches, solidarity messages, upbeat progressive songs and a political fashion show. Impressed by the vibrancy, strength and resiliency of the crowd and the exhibit, Robert Massoud of the Beit Zatoun House declared that “I was totally blown away by your exhibition/installation. It was hugely creative and inspirational! It is my new benchmark for community expression against oppression.”

As the Filipino Canadian community continues to be one of the most oppressed and marginalized communities in Canadian society, the need for Filipino Canadian women, workers and youth to relentlessly organize and continue the struggle for our overall empowerment and development remains an urgent task. “It was wonderful to behold young people who are embracing and understanding of how far our families have come, and how far we still need to go in order to be a part of this country we call home,” says Connie Masci, one of the founding members of PWC-ON.

“Tonight was a part of our process of completing the journey from nation to home; this bears witness to the strength and determination of the Filipino Canadian community in heightening the struggle for women’s liberation and advancing our struggle for our just and genuine settlement and integration in Canada,” ends Sioson.

Filipino Canadian women, workers and youth have once again galvanized their unity and are more than ready to fulfill their role to lead the struggle for full participation and entitlement in Canadian society.

-30-

The Grand Maleta Art exhibit will run until October 30, 2010.

Beit Zatoun House (612 Markham Street, one block west from Bathurst and Bloor)

Gallery hours:

Mon & Tues: closed
Wed: 12pm – 6pm
Thurs & Fri: 12pm – 7pm
Sat & Sun: 12pm – 5pm

For more information, contact:

Qara Clemente
pwc-on@magkaisacentre.org
www.magkaisacentre.org
(416) 519-2553

Philippine Women Centre of Ontario (PWC-ON) Member of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC) Telephone: 416-519-2553

Click here to view more pictures:

Magkaisa Centre Annual BBQ
August 14th, 12:00 NN
Earl Bales Park (South of Sheppard)
Please see map for directions.
It’s a potluck, so bring some food!

Toronto, ON – July 20, 2010 – Armed with the spirit of cultural resistance, more than170 Filipino-Canadian youth, women and workers filled the Arbor Room on the night of July 16 for “Roots, Rhymes and Resistance,” an annual cultural event hosted by the Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance – Ontario (UKPC/FCYA-ON). With this year’s theme, “Panahon Natin, Our Moment! Step Out, Stand Out!” the youth took centre stage to reaffirm their active role in shaping the Filipino-Canadian community’s future in Canada.

Showcasing multimedia presentations, song, theatre and dance from individual artists and collectives, these twenty performances depicted and celebrated the history  and the resiliency of a community that strives for their just and genuine settlement and integration in Canada. Filipino-Canadians continue to face worsening conditions as they currently make up the 4th largest visible minority group in Canada. “It is the younger generation that inherits the marginalization of our community – we see this as our youth are pushed out of high schools, remain under/unemployed and experience poverty and racism,” says Alleben Purugganan, a member of UKPC/FCYA-ON and the Philippine Women Centre of Ontario. For her, RRR is about the youth seizing the opportunity to change this path.  “We’ve never really had a moment,” she states, “as we’ve always followed a conservative tradition that either denies our reality or merely accepts the stereotypes imposed on our community. We are tired of this and we are creating a new culture that will make us youth count.”

One of the highlights of the night was a song entitled, “Inay,” performed by Vince Ledesma and Liphayette Hilado, the youngest members of UKPC/FCYA-ON. Their song of a child yearning for a mom who left home to work abroad was performed simultaneously with photos of their loved ones being projected in the background. As well, Veronica Abrenica shared her newly-produced short film “Anak.” Using a monologue first performed at last December’s RRR, the film exposed conditions of family separation, non-accreditation of professionals and economic marginalization. The night also featured the skill and talent of nine young and emerging emcees through a collective rap song on what it means for them to step out and stand out. Qara Clemente, Angela Abrenica and Walter Sanchez performed the song “All on You,” their remake of B.o.B’s “Nothin’ on You,” a fun and upbeat narration of the transnational lives of Filipino women around the world. UKPC/FCYA-ON also had the honour of having D.R.E.A.M. Dance Cru in this year’s line-up, as they rocked the second half of the night with an adrenaline-pumped performance.

“I had the great pleasure of sharing the stage with very talented performers, as well as truly genuine and focused individuals,” says Marcus Lomboy, on his experience in performing in RRR. “Those rare kind of people are hard to find, and I’m glad I was able to meet them,” he adds. Kitt Azores, a UKPC/FCYA-ON member, echoes Lomboy’s comments in saying that “It is having to share moments with people that are concerned with the establishment of a real and distinct Filipino-Canadian identity through collective struggle that distinguishes RRR from other cultural events.”

RRR may have provided a space for learning and growth for its participants. But more importantly, it was a chance for Filipino-Canadian youth to realize their collective potential to be at the forefront of social change. “We resist against the legacy of colonization and imperialism that continues to determine our lives,” states Azores, “For me, to step up and stand out means being able to conquer the challenges we face everyday.” The organization’s years of community work have revealed that Filipino-Canadian youth face systemic racism, marginalization and social exclusion. “To resist is to struggle and overcome these barriers,” he adds, “and ultimately, for our community to lead fulfilled lives.”

The night ended with the performers, organizers and volunteers all on stage singing the lines, “Ngayon, never give up the fight!” with their fists raised as they performed a song entitled “Step Up, Stand Out!” getting the audience all on their feet. “Filipino Canadian youth all over Canada are building a movement,” Purgannan describes, “And RRR is a testament to that!” Just this May, youth from UKPC/FCYA-British Columbia also hosted a successful RRR for Asian Heritage Month. Meanwhile, Kabataang Montreal, the organization’s chapter in Quebec, is getting ready to have theirs on August 6.

Upon reigniting the community’s legacy of resistance through RRR, all participants were left with more than souvenirs and are filled with a feeling of genuine militancy. “This is only the beginning,” declares Aila Comilang, one of the emcees and member of UKPC/FCYA-ON. Steeped in an awareness of their own history and current situation, Filipino-Canadian youth are more than ready to take their community’s future into their own hands.  RRR was a celebration of the continuous growth of a dynamic youth movement, and is a testament of what is to come for the Filipino-Canadian community’s history in Canada.

For more photos, check our Flickr page.

-30-

For more information:

Contact Alleben Purugganan

(416) 519-2553

ukpc-on@magkaisacentre.org

www.magkaisacentre.org

The Nanny Business follows Edelyn Pineda who waits to be picked up at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport on a freezing cold night in February. The 27 year old, university educated mother of 3 has spent a grueling three days getting from Hong Kong to Toronto. In her hand she holds a contract to work as a live in caregiver, her work permit and visa. She only has 10 dollars left in her pocket, all that’s left after borrowing money from a loan shark in the Philippines to pay for her flight and thousands of dollars to a Canadian recruitment agency.

She waits for 3 hours in the cold, but no one comes to pick her up. Instead of a good job in a family home awaiting her, she ends up in a crowded apartment of other Filipino newcomers. Edelyn’s story is one of the central stories in “The Nanny Business”. Almost 5000 Filipino women arrive in Canada each year with dreams of changing their lives through a federal program with the lure of a fast-track to Canadian residency. Instead, many find themselves in a nightmare – cheated by recruiters, and misused by bad employers, trapped in a government program that promised so much but ended up facilitating abuse.

In The Nanny Business we follow some very brave nannies who go public. With the help of crusading journalists, human rights lawyers and other parents, they are already forcing change. This is their story.

The Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC) marches with the working class and racialized communities in Canada with courage and militancy as imperialist nations and the world elite meet in Ontario for the recently concluded G8/G20 summits this past weekend. In recognizing the summit as a desperate move by imperialism to cover up the crisis of an economic and political system that is inherently violent and anti-people, CPFC calls on the working class in Canada and around the world to seize this opportunity to advance an international anti-imperialist movement that puts the liberation of the working class, women and racialized peoples at the forefront of the struggle.

Grassroots organizations and activists around Canada have organized teach-ins and mobilizations along the streets of Huntsville and Toronto this past week to express not only our discontent, but also our commitment to collectively educate ourselves and deepen our analysis on neoliberal globalization’s intensifying attacks to our communities. Progressive Filipino Canadians identify that the policies that will be and have been resulting from summits, such as the G8/G20, further marginalize an already exploited and underrepresented transnational Filipino community in Canada. It is crucial for us then, whose lives are most affected by this imperialist project, to know the true history and purpose of the G8/G20.

During the course of events this weekend, the media has focused on the “uncontrollable” violence and the “misuse of the freedom of expression” by the protestors, to whom Prime Minister Stephen Harper has referred to as “thugs.” To render activists and organizers as people who want to cause nothing but mere trouble is to forget the legacy of resistance that we inherit as a people whose land has been ravaged and whose communities have been exploited by centuries of colonialism and imperialism.

We must not forget the intent behind the creation of the G6 in 1975 – it was to consolidate the power of the top 6 nations of the world to establish neoliberal ideology as a framework for economic policy-making, and to quell the growing anti-imperialist movement in the Global South and within the imperialist nations themselves. Canada joined in 1976 to secure its role in neoliberal economy, followed by Russia in 1997, thus forming the top 8. Along the same lines, the G20 was formed in 2008 to establish a partnership between the existing imperialist powers and their allies from the Global South. G20 summits include the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, imperialism’s institutional tools for assaulting the lives of the poor and working-class around the world. G8/G20 share the same core goal – to coordinate mechanisms for the consolidation of the imperialist agenda globally.

We must not forget that throughout history, it is the very implementation of this neoliberal agenda both in the advanced capitalist countries and in the Global South that has furthered the colonial legacy that continues to keep our community in the margins. We must not forget that, as part of a transnational community who serves as globalization’s pool of skilled, yet cheap labour, our constant movement and marginalization are direct products of these political projects.

Earlier this week, Harper delivered a statement regarding the upcoming summits, emphasizing the role of Canada in leading the world to economic recovery through the deliverance of an aggressive free trade agenda. However, because we do not forget our history, and we do not turn away from the worsening conditions that the working-class and the racialized communities face in Canada, we know that this economic recovery is not for us.

As capitalism has entered another phase of crisis, our lives as people in the margins have become even more difficult as we continue to suffer from massive lay-offs and from the effects of the flexibilization of labour. And how has Canada responded to this? Rather than protecting the structures that attempt to meet the basic human rights of Canadians, they have made significant cutbacks from social services and have further privatized our education and healthcare systems.

In this crisis, it is racialized and working-class women who are hit the most. We see this as more and more Filipino women toil under Canada’s Live-in Caregiver Program, work as migrant workers under the Temporary Foreign Workers Program or are relegated to precarious service sector jobs and sex work. De-skilling and underdevelopment have marked the path of the Filipino Canadian community towards further economic marginalization and social exclusion.

Now we ask, is this the type of recovery that we will allow the heads of the top 20 nations and international financial institutions to pursue?

We already know what the world after the G8/G20 summits will look like. We saw it from the violence in the streets of Toronto this weekend, as heavily armed police hurt and arrest protesters. We felt it just less than a year ago, when our friends and family were laid-off from their jobs. And we still see it on those who are tired from working 16-hour shifts, or those who were pushed out of high schools. Some of us have felt it, when environmental degradation and extreme poverty have pushed us out of our countries to migrate. With the Canadian economy depending on the success of the establishment of the global imperialist order, we will, once again, be witness and subjected to the aggressive implementation of: underdevelopment, resource extraction and the facilitation of labour migration from the Philippines and the rest of the world.

We, as Filipino Canadians, denied of a just and genuine settlement and integration in Canada, are living testaments of the attacks of imperialism against working-class and racialized peoples. However, we have shown commendable strength and solidarity this weekend as we have taken our resistance to the streets for the world to witness our dissent against the G8/G20 summits. But we cannot stop here. We do not just oppose the G8/G20 summits, we oppose what it represents and the violence it perpetuates on our communities.

Hence we, members of the newly-formed Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians, reiterate our call to heighten our resistance and intensify the educating, mobilizing and organizing efforts of our community. We continue to advance our work in building the community and making genuine solidarity with other communities in North America and movements in the South.

Progressive Filipinos, who have marched the streets in Ontario this weekend, and those in Quebec and British Columbia who have supported in solidarity, challenge community organizers, and the rest who have expressed resistance this weekend to strengthen our organizing efforts. We call on all working-class and racialized communities to strengthen our resolve to expose and oppose the imperialist agenda and work towards building a genuine solidarity.

As we strive for fulfilled lives and a better world, we will continue to march the streets for liberation, and advance the struggles of the oppressed, marginalized and working-class peoples around the world.

The people united, will never be defeated!
Expose and oppose the neoliberal project!
Down with imperialism!
Long live international solidarity!

-30-

Organizations under the CPFC:
National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC)
SIKLAB-Canada (Filipino Canadian worker’s organization)
Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance – National
Sinag Bayan Arts Collective – National
Philippines-Canada Task Force on Human Rights (PCTFHR)

For more information:
Contact Joy C. Sioson
www.magkaisacentre.org
pwc-on@magkaisacentre.org
416-519-2553

Toronto ON –

With just 15 days away, Filipino Canadian youth are tuning their guitars, pushing pens, polishing their dance moves, and raising their fists high as excitement builds for an upcoming cultural event called “Roots, Rhymes and Resistance (RRR): Panahon Natin, Our Moment! Step up, Stand Out!” on July 16, 2010 at the Arbor Room at the University of Toronto. Originally featured in Vancouver, RRR will take centre stage for the second time in Toronto to showcase the culture of resistance rooted within every Filipino youth residing in Canada.

“RRR is one way to express our people’s long tradition of resiliency and our desire to collectively define our own community’s future here in Canada,” states Mervyn Mabini, one of the event’s organizers. Hosted by the Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance – Ontario (UKPC/FCYA – ON), this event aims to be the space for Filipinos to hear, take part, and put forward the stories of our struggle through the form of music, spoken word, dance, live art, theatre, and multimedia performances. “After the success of the first RRR, we felt the eagerness of more Filipino Canadian youth to be involved in activities like these. It just proves that more youth is taking up the call advance the struggles of Filipinos as a transnational community living in Canada.”

Similar to the RRR held in December 2009, this year’s aims to raise funds in order to support and strengthen the community-based program that UKPC/FCYA has been enthusiastically engaged in for more than 15 years: to make Filipinos count in Canada’s future. As a growing youth organization, every cent that will be collected on this event will be used to sustain the material and financial expenses to build a strong and united Filipino Canadian community that reflects the vision of a just and free society. RRR is an event by the youth, for the youth. “This cultural event is going to be the our opportunity to raise awareness of the genuine settlement and integration that every Filipino Canadian demands and deserves.” Mabini adds.

In this night of cultural resistance, event goers are expected to witness the defiance of the young people on the issue of our community’s intensifying social exclusion and marginalization. With the support of the workers and women in the community through SIKLAB (a workers’ organization) and the Philippine Women Centre, the stage is now set for the youth as they affirm that their voices are now in tune to make the community hear that this is the time. July the 16th is the moment Filipino Canadians step up and stand out!

National Roots, Rhymes and Resistance
“Panahon Natin, Our Moment: Step Up, Stand Out!”
Friday, July 16 2010, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Doors open at 6:00 PM, show starts at 7:00 PM
Arbor Room, 7 Hart House Circle
at the University of Toronto
$10 Cover

For tickets and information:
Contact Alleben Purugganan or Aila Comilang
416-519-2335
ukpc-on@magkaisacentre.org
www.magkaisacentre.org

Toronto, ON – June 16, 2010 – Once again, Filipino youth, women and workers across Canada are seizing the moment in a resounding call to make Filipino youth count in Canada’s future. The culture of resistance takes centre stage as dynamic Filipino youth spill their talents on a national level at “Roots, Rhymes and Resistance: Panahon Natin, Our Moment! Step Up, Stand Out!”

The show will be held at the Arbor Room at the University of Toronto’s Hart House on Friday, July 16, 2010 from 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM. Building off the momentum of Toronto’s first RRR held last December, event goers will be able to see a stronger and more vibrant range of performers from Sinag Bayan Ontario and more. Be prepared to unravel your creative minds as Filipino youth step up to the challenge of redefining Filipino culture through music, theatre, spoken word, dance and multimedia.

Throughout history, youth have always been at the forefront of stimulating change within their communities. In recognizing the inherent dynamism of Filipino youth, UKPC/FCYA-ON are committed to harnessing the potential of all Filipino youth across Canada through different artistic and cultural forms.

“We don’t come into this country as blank slates,” says Aila Comilang, a UKPC member. “We have our own histories, our own dreams and our own ideas of what it means to be Filipino-Canadian.” Since its first show in Vancouver over 13 years ago, Roots, Rhymes and Resistance has created a living history of resistance that inspired scores of Filipino youth to exercise their vision of an empowered community. 13 years later, that vision now reverberates on a national level as “Panahon Natin, Our Moment! Step Up, Stand Out!” is simultaneously celebrated in Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto.

Slated to be more lively and inspiring than the last, “Panahon Natin, Our Moment! Step Up, Stand Out!” the night’s performances are sure to wow audiences by stirring them into action. Steeped in the culture of resistance, Filipino youth are asserting their rightful place towards attaining the community’s just and genuine settlement and integration in Canada. “Roots, Rhymes and Resistance: Panahon Natin, Our Moment! Step Up, Stand Out!” will be another monumental event that firmly reflects our community’s legacy of resistance.

“National Roots, Rhymes and Resistance
Panahon Natin, Our Moment: Step Up, Stand Out!”
Friday, July 16 2010, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Doors open at 6:00 PM, show starts at 7:00 PM
Arbor Room, 7 Hart House Circle
Tickets $10.00
U of T Downtown Campus
$10 Cover

For tickets and information, contact:
Kim Abis
(416) 519-2553
ukpc-on@magkaisacentre.org
www.magkaisacentre.org

###

Community members, artists and gallery onlookers will recall the power and the impact contained within the pieces “Cargo,” “Singkil” and “Giant Maleta.” Produced under the theme of “End the Exploitation, March for Liberation,” these pieces were crafted by the hands of the Sinag Bayan Ontario arts collective, and embodied by the lives of the transnational Filipino women striving for better lives in their new home. “As young Filipino artists and community organizers, we see art as an opportunity to convey our community’s culture of resistance to our audiences,” says Alleben Purugganan, Philippine Women Centre of Ontario and Sinag Bayan Ontario member. “Cargo,” “Singkil” and “Giant Maleta” will not only show stories of struggle, but will also highlight the community’s resistance.

Sponsored by the Laidlaw Foundation, the New Shape exhibit “gathers pieces by artists who tangibly work towards creating the communities they believe in.” In a similar fashion, Maleta provides the artistic vision and practice for an empowered Filipino-Canadian community. As Mark Serrano, UKPC/FCYA-ON member says, “By bringing out important issues through art, we are encouraging all Canadians to unpack their Maletas and to look at how migration shapes us as a people.” Currently, Maleta finds a new home in the New Shape exhibit, albeit for a temporary period of time. Maleta’s transitory appearance, much like the Filipino transnational experience, is a sign of what is to come. Come October, the Maleta Project will continue into a new home, in celebration of the Philippine Women Centre of Ontario’s 10th year anniversary. Similarly, Filipino-Canadians continue to struggle for their just and genuine settlement and integration by taking root in Canada as their new home. In celebration of PWC-ON’s 10th year anniversary, the Maleta Project’s grand exhibit will be held in a new location.

New Shape Exhibition
Gallery 1313
1313A Queen Street West
June 9th – 20th
Launch on June 14, 5 – 7PM

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

Gabriella Abis, using her skills behind the lens, placed the Top 10 slots of the City of Toronto’s “Our City, Our Stories powered by Canon” photography competition. Her series of photographs, “The Odyssey of Play,” were chosen amongst 152 submissions, all of which originated from Toronto’s list of Priority Neighbourhoods. “My photos convey a sense of happiness, friendship and freedom,” describes Abis. “Some of feelings are what our parents brought us to Canada for, not just for jobs,” she continues. Abis is a 17-year old student at Msgr. Percy Johnson Catholic Secondary School in Rexdale.

Kenneth Santos, a fourth year Political Science, French and Education major at York University, was the recipient of the Jaswant Singh Randhawa Award in Political Science. As a young Filipino scholar, he emphasizes the need for research that is grounded in the community. “We belong to a community of educators. Our experiences as a community shape our collective histories,” Santos says. “Our crucial role as young scholars starts when we document those experiences and bring it back to the community through collective action and organizing” he adds.

As members of UKPC/FCYA-ON, Abis and Santos encourage all youth to discover their creativity and talent through the practice of community-building. Education, art and culture are powerful components of the community’s transformation and empowerment. Armed with the culture of resistance, Filipino youth are stepping up to the challenge to make Filipino youth count in Canada’s future.

-30-

To view more of Gabriella Abis’ photos, click here.

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

Toronto, ON – February 1, 2010 – During the November 2008 “Making the Filipino Community Count In Canada’s Future” conference, Toronto was honoured by the presence of several art works produced by the Kalayaan Centre in Vancouver and the Kapit Bisig Centre in Montreal. Most favourable were two pieces: a series of acrylic painted suitcases (mga maleta) titled the Maleta Family (produced as part of the Maleta art project) and Scrap: A Political Fashion Show. Through cartoon caricatures, The Maleta Family alluded to – visually – the harsh reality that Filipino families face coming to Canada, such as, but not limited to: the de-skilling of our community into service sector jobs and the deceiving nature of the Live-In Caregiver Program as an immigration program. Scrap: A Political Fashion Show presented the stories of Filipino caregivers through projection, audio voice-overs, and from the women themselves dressed in specifically “themed” gowns representing their challenges under a modern-day slavery program. In short, these works represent what the Maleta art project is all about: presenting the issues of Filipino–Canadians through the multi-disciplined medium of Art and through a community-based effort.

For the Magkaisa Centre, 2010 marks the beginning of the Maleta project in Toronto and also the 10^th year anniversary of the Philippine Women Centre of Ontario. Maleta is not a separate program; rather, it is part of this celebration of 10 years of Filipino women’s organizing in Ontario. Unlike the initial Maleta project by the Kalayaan Centre in Vancouver, Magkaisa’s Maleta will be a long term project with monthly meetings – not just a series of workshops. Moreover, the Maleta project will be interwoven in all the projects of this celebratory 1oth year anniversary – including the ongoing Anti-Racism Education Research Project, International Women’s Day in March and the National Roots, Rhymes and Resistance in May. The project will include guests from Kapit Bisig Centre, Kalayaan Centre and collaborations with the Macaw Hawk Youth Council.

The main components of this project, however, will be the community effort to produce works that speak about the issues and connect back to the Filipino community’s need for a just and genuine settlement and integration in Canada. Furthermore, Maleta will encourage our community to continue deepening their understanding of Canada and our community’s role in this country’s future by focusing on four major concerns: Combating systemic racism and social exclusion; Overcoming economic marginalization; Making the youth count in our Community’s future; and, Enhancing women’s equality and human rights.

Art is an aspect of culture. For ethnic communities in Canada, multiculturalism has helped shape what that culture looks like and how it is consumed. In the Filipino community, it is a struggle to maintain Filipino culture and stop it from becoming merely entertainment. “We didn’t come here to dance for anyone. But, we’ll dance if we feel like it,” says Reuben Sarumugam, member of UKPC/FCYA–ON. The Maleta art project is a way for us to recognize our militant history from the Philippines, our history of women’s organizing here in Canada and an opportunity to carry on the legacy of our rich culture of resistance.

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

Toronto, ON – On November 28th, 2009, members from Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance of Ontario (UKPC/FCYA–ON) gathered together for a one day conference titled Palakasin II: “Palakasin ang Ugnayan, Tuloy ang Laban! Filipino Youth Continue the Legacy of Resistance.” Over 50 Filipino youth, women, and workers forged their solidarity through panels and workshops that contextualized the community’s need for community-based action and resistance.

The first panel focused on our history of migration, along with presentations on Canadian Multiculturalism and the Temporary Foreign Workers Program. The second panel shifted the focus on violence against women and the experience of young Filipinos as workers and children of live-in caregivers. Aside from being a celebration of UKPC/FCYA-ON’s two-year history of community organizing, a resounding call for the community’s just and genuine settlement and integration in Canada also formed the core of the day’s activities.

Alleben Purugganan and Aila Comilang, members of the Magkaisa Centre, started off the day by welcoming all participants. Kim Abis and Mervyn Mabini then proceeded on to highlight UKPC–ON’s activities for the past two years. The past two years have been rife with activities, including Palakasin! ang Tunay na Ugnayan: Strengthen our Youth Unite for Freedom (2007), Balik sa Ugat, Balik sa Komunidad Workshop Series (2008), Filipino Women’s Studies Workshop Series (2009), and the beginning of the Anti-Racism Education Research Project (2009), to name a few.

In beginning, to address the Filipino community’s need for a just and genuine settlement and integration, it is important to examine Filipino-Canadian history and its ties to Canadian immigration policy. Qara Clemente of the Philippine Women Centre presented the history of Filipino migration into Canada, as related to Canada’s labour needs and the economic conditions in the Philippines. Following this, Reuben Sarumugam of UKPC–ON presented a slide show on the history of Canada’s multiculturalism policy. He emphasized the need to critically examine multiculturalism policy amidst the backdrop of immigration policies that have historically been racist, classist and gendered. He ended with a call to action titled “Moving Forward by Exercising Our Citizenship Rights.” He stated, “we have to exercise our democratic rights here in Canada, speak for ourselves and fight for our genuine settlement, integration and full entitlement in Canada.” Joy Sioson concluded the first panel by elaborating on the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) and the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP). These government programs have direct, and often negative, impacts on the community, especially in the aspects of women’s equality, human rights and development, economic marginalization, systemic racism and social exclusion. Because of stringent work requirements, violent and abusive work experiences in the LCP and a lack of social infrastructure for the needs of these workers, programs such as the LCP and TFWP virtually legislate Filipino families into poverty. Furthermore, the impacts also trickle down to the youth, as live-in caregivers are separated from their families for an average of over nine years. “These are complex issues that must be matched with an even more comprehensive framework for action. It is the task of the new generation to undertake these tasks, while staying sharp and keeping in mind the interrelated struggles of combating systemic racism, overcoming poverty, making Filipino youth count in our future and enhancing Filipino women’s equality,” Sioson concluded.

While the first panel set the context for the history of Filipino-Canadians, the second panel focused on the stories of community members, whose lived experiences are a testament to the ever-pressing need for resistance. Edelyn Pineda, member of SIKLAB–ON, shared her experiences of working as a live-in caregiver. After paying thousands of dollars to a placement agency, she found herself stranded in Vancouver airport and without an employer; eventually becoming jobless in Toronto. “I am only one of many Filipino women who come to Canada through the LCP who find themselves going through the same traumatic experience. We have to question under what circumstances Filipino women are entering Canada, and how the LCP promotes these conditions,” Pineda said. She continues to speak out about her experience and questions the Canadian government’s interests in promoting the program.

Linked with the struggles of women in the LCP were its direct impacts on Filipino youth, as presented by Ken Santos and Bryan Taguba, both children of live-in caregivers and members of UKPC-ON and SIKLAB-ON. In particular, Santos shared his experience of empowerment after realizing how systemic structures, such as the LCP in Canada and the Labour Export Policy in the Philippines, had direct impacts on himself and his family. “Family separation happens when your family is working so much that they hardly see each other, your mother is still working as a nanny after finishing the LCP, and your brothers drop out of school because their Philippine education is not accredited,” he shared. Both Santos and Taguba see the importance of their role as youth organizers in tackling the issues not only of their families, but also for the settlement and integration of the community as a whole.

The second panel also featured Marylou David and Jarelle Gabison from UKPC–ON and the PWC–ON’s Young Women’s Collective. Both women emphasized the importance of incorporating the women’s perspective in organizing work and the significant role that young women play in leading a movement. Jarelle Gabison highlighted the significance of PWC-ON’s Filipino Women’s Studies Course in educating, organizing and mobilizing around the legacy of Filipino women’s resistance in the Philippines and especially in Canada.

The second half of the day continued with workshops on “The Role of Young Women in Organizing” and “Racism in the Workplace and Education System.” Discussions and actions plans around topics such as women’s resistance, the contextualization of men’s role in women’s liberation and the systemic aspect of racism were brought up. In the workshop on “The Role of Young Women in Organizing,” Kelly Botengan, member of SIKLAB–ON and former live-in caregiver, stressed the need to redefine feminism and the debates around gender for Filipino women. “Our struggles do not simply revolve around relationships and pay equity,” she said. Filipino women in Canada, a majority of whom are young women, are currently trapped in dead-end jobs and experience a lack of social and economic opportunities for expressing and empowering themselves. The workshop ended on a high note, with an emphasis on the rich history of Filipino women’s organizing and resistance in Canada.

In the “Racism in the Workplace and Education System” workshop, facilitators Jean-Marc Daga of SIKLAB–ON and Aia Furigay, a member of UKPC–ON, drew relationships between the different types of racism experienced by workshop participants. The participants’ collective experiences of racism pointed the need to link these experiences to systemic racism. Instead of personalizing and individualizing these experiences, it was important to connect them back to the racist practices embedded within institutions such as schools, the justice system, and the workplace. Anchoring racism’s root causes in something concrete allowed participants to see how they can begin to tackle issues that seem ambiguous. Overall, the youth were challenged to continue the work that has been done by Filipinos in Canada, especially by Filipino women.

The day’s celebrations concluded with a solidarity concert that showcased pieces that incorporated messages of resistance, collective consciousness and empowerment. Audience members found themselves listening intently and singing along to the performances that carried the themes discussed by everyone throughout the day. The night ended off with a round of assessments, where participants gave their insights on the event and shared ideas for concrete action. “Seeing youth gathering for a good cause with such passion and dedication was inspiring. It strengthened my belief that change can and will happen,” commented Joyce Bondoc, a UKPC–ON member.

Armed with the knowledge of their history, current reality and concrete steps for mobilization and action, the Filipino youth and community members who participated in this one-day event were united towards advancing the struggle of the Filipino community in Canada.

We are with the Derro family in mourning for the loss of Christian. Our community has been experiencing different forms of youth violence, and we do not wish for this trend to continue. Violence, whether from lethal weapons or from systemic barriers, hinders the capacities and lives of our youth. We are also with the Derro family in seeking justice and truth for Christian’s death. Since the shooting was reported in the news about a month ago, little information has been heard about the incident since. Though his body has been laid to rest, questions on the circumstances behind Christian’s death still linger. As Filipino-Canadian youth, we offer our condolences towards all those whose lives have been touched by Christian.

Furthermore, we believe that the entire Filipino community, not just our youth, are facing similar forms of violence that affect our full participation and settlement and integration within Canadian society. Our community represents the third largest visible minority in Canada, with over 250,000 of us residing in Toronto. As well, a majority of our community is composed of women and youth. As media coverage often criminalizes our youth whenever an incident of violence occurs, it is important to understand the root causes and systemic barriers behind the experiences of our community. We can honour the lives of fallen youth like Christian Derro by addressing the most immediate and pressing issues of the Filipino community as a whole. Their lives are a testament to the ability of our youth to come together and recognize that more deaths are not necessary before we make the necessary steps towards change.

Contact:

Kim Abis

ukpc-on@magkaisacentre.org

(416) 519-2553

###

Over the past three weeks, incidents of street violence involving Filipino adolescents, and  alleged members of the South Asian community have increased in the Côte-des-Neiges area. According to reports received by Kabataang Montreal (Filipino youth of Montreal), several Filipino youth have been involved in fights and were hospitalized as a result.  In response to the rise in violence, Kabataang Montreal will be holding a press conference on Wednesday, September 23, 2009 at 4900 Fulton at 10h00 to call for an end to this pressing and urgent matter.

“We are deeply concerned with how frequent and severe these cases have become”, says Neil Castro, Secretary-General of KM, “We will not allow this situation to escalate to the point where more people get hurt.  We need to talk about this issue immediately”.  The Filipino youth hope to join forces with leaders of the South Asian community to address the issues of systemic racism facing the youth of both communities.

With the growing influx of immigrant communities, Côte-des-Neiges has become a densely populated area in Montreal where many citizens experience economic marginalization. For instance, Filipinos represent the largest ethnic group in the area, but despite their very visible presence in the community, they continually face barriers to their successful settlement and integration.  Filipinos in Côte-des-Neiges represent one of the most educated and skilled groups in Canada, yet they face low wages and poor working conditions.
Their children experience difficulties in accessing education in Montreal, and as a result, have one of the highest dropout rates (among Filipino males) in high school in the country. These experiences are exacerbated by systemic racism and a severe lack of understanding among institutions and government officials about the realities that face Filipinos and other youth of colour.

Despite its growing population of the Filipino community, the city has provided few resources or infrastructure particularly for its youth sector.   As a result, youth members are sharing overcrowded parks, where tensions are bound to build. “There’s a clear link between marginalized youth members living in a ghettoized, populated area and youth violence. This speaks to a lack of support for the youth” says Roderick Carreon, chairperson of SIKLAB-Quebec and founder of Kabataang Montreal.

While the recent events in Côte-des-Neiges raise serious concerns, it is important to note that these altercations have consistently affected marginalized youth across Canada. Cases like those of Jeffrey Reodica, Deeward Ponte and Mao Jomar Lanot are just some examples of violence that led to the death of these Filipino youth. Given these events, the following question arises: Why does the Filipino community, or members of the immigrant community at large, continue to struggle through these issues of violence?  To blame individual youth members is an oversimplified answer, and one that does not address the wide scale barriers and issues affecting marginalized youth. If these cases are generating so many similarities and
are manifesting themselves across the country, there is an urgent need examine the factors that divides the community, and pits one group against another.

For more information, please see the press conference details below.

Press conference information:

Date: September 23rd, 2009
Time: 10h00
Where: 4900 Fulton
Contact: Neil Castro at 514-690-6345

-30-

*
–
Kabataang Montreal
Member Organization of Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino
Canadian Youth Alliance

Press release

PWC’s Young Women’s Collective launches first community-based women’s studies program
For immediate release: June 17, 2009

June 17, 2009 (Toronto, ON) – The Philippine Women Centre of Ontario (PWC-ON), along with its newly formed Young Women’s Collective, is launching “Towards Filipino Women’s Liberation: a community-based Filipino women’s studies program.” This program, which will consist of ten three-hour sessions, marks the first ever community-based Filipino women’s studies program in PWC-ON’s history. Modeled after the Philippine Women Centre of BC’s own community-based Filipino women’s studies program, these courses will examine the root causes of Filipino women’s migration through the study of political, social and economic forces – both historical and contemporary – that frame Filipino women’s experience.

As Filipino women comprise over 70 percent of Filipino migrants and immigrants in Canada, the need for understanding the role of Filipino women in the community’s struggle for settlement and integration becomes more pressing and vital. The increasing feminization of labour and migration is especially evident in the Live-in Caregiver Program, a program that is comprised of 96 percent of Filipino women. And as Filipino women in Canada continue to be relegated to the brunt of Canada’s labour market, working within the service sector, factory or domestic work spheres, despite having proper educational and work credentials from the Philippines, the need to educate the community towards the empowerment of Filipino women becomes a crucial step towards action.

Not only do Filipino women and women of colour experience oppression from race and class, they experience the three-fold oppression of racism, classism and sexism found within a white patriarchal society. Coming together as women from different backgrounds to relate through common experiences and issues thus becomes strength against oppression. Recognizing the unique experiences of individual women yet finding strength within a collective setting is one of the motivations behind establishing a community-based Filipino women’s studies program, and also behind the formation of PWC-ON’s Young Women’s Collective. Young female members of the Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance (UKPC/FCYA-ON) saw the need to organize as young women to tackle specific issues, just as the community-based Filipino women’s studies program aims to develop a strengthened women’s perspective in tackling the community’s issues.

Towards Filipino Women’s Liberation: a community-based Filipino women’s studies program aims to accomplish the following objectives:

• To deepen the understanding of women’s history and current situation from the perspectives of Filipino women
• To analyze and understand women’s marginalization, oppression and exploitation within the context of globalization
• To develop tools to reconceptualize the women’s movement from the perspective of Filipino women in Canada

The program description includes:

• Ten three-hour sessions on the theory and practice of women’s history, struggle and resistance for and by Filipino women
• Filipino men and women are welcome to participate
• Participants will integrate into the community to understand the situation of women in different sectors through a community-based research
• Learning and teaching will also include Filipino cultural resources and multimedia techniques

The course outline is as follows:

1. Course orientation (June 21st, 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM)
2. Precolonial and colonial histories, US and neocolonial histories (June 28th, 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM)
3. Women’s methodologies (July 12th, 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM)
4. History of migration and current history (July 19th, 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM)
5. Context of the woman question (July 26th, 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM)
6. Context of globalization (August 9th, 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM)
7. Context of transnational issues (August 16th, 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM)
8. Intersectional analysis – race, class and gender (August 23rd, 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM)
9. Community-based Filipino women activists (August 30th, 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM)
10. Project presentations, evaluations (September 6th, 12:00 PM – 3:00 PM)

Speakers and resource persons will include members of the Filipino community, as well as PWC’s own members. The first out of the ten three-hour sessions will begin on June 21, 2009 at 12:00 noon. A $20 fee for course materials will be required, to be paid upon the program’s commencement. Those who are interested in participating can register by e-mailing pwc-on@magkaisacentre.org, or by contacting Alleben Purugganan or Kim Abis at (416) 519-2553.