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.

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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!

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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

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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
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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.

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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

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*
–
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.

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

May 9, 2009

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ugnayan Ng Kabataang Pilipino Sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance – Ontario

Issues of Filipino identity dominated the conversation during the first State of the Filipino Union (SOFU) gathering on February 26, 2009. However, the gathering did not address the more apparent concerns that affect the successful settlement and integration of our community such as, systemic racism, violence against women and economic marginalization.

“What was it like to grow up in Canada? Did your parents teach you Tagalog? What was your experience with assimilation? Did you teach your kids Tagalog?”

These questions were directed to a panel of 16 Filipino youth and 16 older Filipino Canadians who spearhead or are affiliated with cultural, religious, media, service-oriented and university student-based organizations in the Greater Toronto Area. Many panelists responded with similar experiences and reiterations of culture clash, “just trying to fit-in” scenarios and learning Filipino culture as elements that informed their identity.

However, if Filipinos have continued to arrive in Canada since the 1960s, why has the dialogue today become so stagnant and fixated only on Filipino identity?

As the night continued, a debate based on the supposed splinter between “Bacon” (a Canadian born Filipino who can’t speak Tagalog) and “F.O.B” (“Fresh off the Boat” or newly arrived immigrant) became fodder for discussion. Anjo Pallasigui of Minerva Records was the only one who tried to raise the discussion to a higher level. He articulated in Tagalog that the issue is not a rift between first and second generation Filipinos, but a stratification of class.

Along with analyses of class, race and gender remained absent from the State of the Filipino Union forum. These absent analyses should have been present because the Filipino community in Canada is now comprised of 65-70% women. Its mention is important due to the fact that 97% of workers coming under the Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) are Filipino women. These women, who are making minimum wage or less, are not able to bring their families to Canada, upgrade their education or have their education properly accredited to continue in their chosen field while under the program. Many have to go back to school after finishing the program despite having been a professional in the Philippines. But with soaring tuition costs for post-secondary education, going back to school is virtually impossible for most women as they struggle to fend for themselves all the while sending remittances to support their families back in the Philippines. Furthermore, as an added disadvantage, after doing domestic work for the required 24 months within 36 months, Filipino women under the LCP are argued to have no “Canadian experience,” forcing them to work service sector jobs and factory jobs following the completion of the program.

Based on the foreign domestic movement and implemented in 1992, the LCP continues to show its racist, exploitative, and sexist nature. Filipino women come forward expressing their economic hardships, experiences of physical abuse, as well as their psychological and emotional trauma from becoming essentially modern-day slaves for upper and upper-middle class Canadian families. Contributors of oppression, Canadian families often believe they are doing a favour for these women and relish in the fact that the “LCP is so cheap.”

Diwa Marcelino of Migrante Youth stated some of the wage problems of the LCP and then delivered his soft politics, “. . .we have to change some policies. . .” and make the live-in caregiver program “less exploitative and more humane.” The position offered by Migrante Youth suggests that there is a level of exploitation that is acceptable and that any abuse or violation of human rights should be tolerated. The negative impacts of the LCP, rather, do not just fall upon Filipinas in the program, but the rest of the community.

The National Day of Action on January 27^th is an annual event that mourns the death of 15-year-old Deeward Ponte in Vancouver, British Columbia. Deeward’s death is a grim reminder to all Filipinos of the many youth who have died or suffered because of racism: the death of Jeffrey Reodica in Toronto, Ontario by 3 plain-clothes police officers; the beating of a 17-year-old Filipino teenage girl in Cote-des-Neiges, Quebec by police; and the killing of Mao Jomar Lanot and Charles Dalde. More cases of racial profiling, police brutality and racially motivated beatings continue to emerge and yet the topic of discussion during the State of the Filipino Union focused only on the identity crisis of established and popular Filipino-Canadians. This is a complete and utter embarrassment and regression for the entire community. It is an outright denial of the social impacts of the LCP and insult to the slain and beaten youth of domestic workers who could not spend more time with their mothers.

Ugnayan Ng Kabataang Pilipino Sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance (UKPC/FCYA), the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC) and SIKLAB-Canada has always maintained the position that the LCP must be scrapped.  In addition, the program as a policy needs to be terminated and the Canadian government pressured into implementing settlement and integration programs. The expansion of the Temporary Foreign Workers Program, which the government is now attempting, will only perpetuate the problems that already exist under the LCP. The call is for the LCP to be scrapped, permanent residence to be given to all Filipino migrants, proper accreditation so that they can continue in their chosen profession and universal childcare services for all women in Canada. “All Filipino migrants contribute to the Canadian economy and therefore should be recognized for these contributions,” says Qara Clemente of UKPC/FCYA-ON.

Once again the State of the Filipino Union was unsuccessful in acknowledging the shear extent of degradation the LCP has had on the community. Instead, the panelists – including youth from universities and older Filipinos representing advocacy groups – championed their collective position to be neutral and apolitical because of the fear of causing fissures in the community.

The failure of the State of the Filipino Union was not in its organization as an event, but in its content. The clear issues of systemic racism (racial profiling, police brutality, an indifferent and culturally insensitive education system), violence against women, economic marginalization and the silencing of our lesbian and gay community were glossed over or completely ignored. What the community should not fear is dialogue because of politics. It is only through struggle that we can have true unity. But dialogue alone cannot solve the problems in our community. When it is clear that our youth are being marginalized and left behind, and our women are being exploited, we must take a stand and fight for our community’s genuine development, equality and human rights.

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Statement prepared by:

Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance

ugnayanontario@gmail.com

Guest Speaker: Monica Urrutia
a member of the Philippine Women
Centre of BC and staff of the Public Service Alliance of Canada who joined the Vancouver District Labour Council’s (VDLC) solidarity tour to the Philippines last Novermber 29 to December 14, 2008.

Where: room 1230 Bahen Centre, University of Toronto (St. George Street and College St)

When: February 22, 4-6pm

Refreshments will be served!

Bahen Centre is also wheelchair accessible!

Facebook invite: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=124472900533

Press release

Growing Filipino community in Canada still faces major obstacles to successful integration, says advocacy group
For immediate release: January 30, 2009

While recently released statistics reveal that Filipinos are the largest source of immigrants and temporary workers for Canada combined surpassing China , national advocacy groups say Filipinos still face major barriers to their successful settlement and integration in Canada.

According to statistics from Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 19,064 Permanent Residents and 15,254 temporary workers from the Philippines arrived in Canada in 2007.  Aside from Americans, more Filipinos arrived in Canada as temporary foreign workers than any other nationality.

Organizations under the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada, SIKLAB-Canada (Advance and Uphold the Rights of Overseas Filipino Workers) Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance and the Filipino Nurses Support Group warn against the complacency that the recent announcement may create, signaling to Canadians that the Filipino community has finally reached a level of development in Canadian society.

Instead, the groups argue that the situation of Filipino-Canadians has only worsened in Canada over the last four decades and blames Philippine and Canadian government policies for the “massive exodus of Filipinos abroad to countries like Canada as sources of cheap labour.”

“In the last 40 years, more and more Filipinos have been migrating to Canada , more recently as live-in caregivers and temporary foreign workers,” says Cecilia Diocson, Executive Director of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada.

Since 1992, when Citizenship and Immigration Canada implemented the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) and its predecessor the Foreign Domestic Movement, nearly 100,000 Filipino women have come to Canada as live-in caregivers. It is estimated that 65% of the nearly 500,000 Filipinos in Canada came under the LCP.

“The Canadian government’s recent expansion of the Temporary Foreign Workers program has brought more and more Filipinos to fill cheap labour needs in retail, construction, tourism, hotel and restaurant and other jobs,” says Diocson. Last year alone, Canada issued 115,470 temporary Canadian work permits.

The rapid growth of the Filipino community in Canada within the last 10 years (reports say the number has doubled) makes Filipinos the third largest visible minority group in Canada (after the Chinese and Indo-Canadians) at an estimated 500,000 Filipinos. Organizations say the exodus of Philippine workers is due to the continual and worsening social and economic crisis in the Philippines whose Labor Export Program has resulted in 1/10 of the Philippine population living and working abroad. There are an estimated 7 million Overseas Filipino Workers in 168 countries around the world. The Philippine economy is dependent on the some $13 billion USD in annual remittances of overseas workers.

The forced migration of Filipinos abroad in search of a better life is taken advantage of by countries like Canada who seek to fill cheap labour needs with an aging population and negative population growth rate.

“We counter recent media reports which state that Filipinos ‘are too busy working’ to care or get involved in politics unless they have been here a long time,” says Diocson. She cites the November 2008 national conference, “Filipino Community and Beyond: Towards Full Participation in a Multicultural and Multi-Ethnic Canada” at the University of Toronto which gathered over 120 participants from across Canada to identify and challenge the systemic barriers that the Filipino community face in their successful integration and settlement in Canada.

“The conference was a striking example of the interest and enthusiasm of Filipino women, migrant workers, youth and immigrants who take a keen interest in politics towards increased participation of Filipinos in the economic, political, social and cultural life of Canada,” says Diocson.

“It is not that Filipinos do not care about politics, yet many are struggling for daily survival to become actively involved in organizations,” says Diocson. “Many Filipinos however do recognize that their individual hardships are reflective of our overall community’s severe economic and social marginalization in Canada ,” she says.

The groups also criticized the Canadian government and so-called ‘experts’ lack of critical analysis or understanding of Canadian laws and policies. They cited BC Minister Responsible for Multiculturalism and Attorney General Wally Oppal who stated in a CBC radio report that the relationship between BC and the Philippines was a ‘mutually beneficial relationship’ and that Filipinos are coming to BC as professionals including nurses. According to the groups, since Filipino professionals began migrating in the late 1960s the majority have not been able to accredit their professional educations and work experience once in Canada due to “systemic and racist barriers.”

“Professionals must either undergo lengthy and costly accreditation processes or return to school,” says Diocson. “For example, nurses are not granted any occupational points under Canada’s immigration system, which is why many Filipino nurses are trapped in the Live-in Caregiver Program and face a stalled development in Canada,” she adds.

Diocson says that although the rapid growth of the community poses many challenges, she says she is optimistic that the Filipino community will one day reach its fullest potential in Canada . “We look particularly to the Filipino youth to continue on our community’s struggle towards our genuine equality, and development in Canada ,” she says.

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For more information, please contact:

Toronto

Magkaisa Centre
1093 Davenport Road
Toronto , ON M6G 2C3
Website: www.magkaisacentre.org
E-mail: pwc-on@magkaisacentre.org

Phone: Joy Sioson, Chairperson Philippine Women Centre of Ontario
(415) 519-2553

Vancouver

Kalayaan Centre
451 Powell Street Vancouver ,
BC V6A 1G7
Website: www.kalayaancentre.net
E-mail: pwc@kalayaancentre.net

Phone: Leah Diana, Executive Director, Philippine Women Centre of BC
(604) 215-1103

Montreal

Kapit Bisig Centre
4900 Rue Fulton
Montreal , QC H3W 1V4
E-mail: pwcofquebec@gmail.com

Philippine Women Centre of Ontario (PWC-ON) Member of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC) Telephone: 416-878-8772

Today marks the one-year death anniversary of Deeward Ponte, the 15-year old Filipino youth who was stabbed at Gray’s Park in Vancouver, and later died in the hospital. As Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance (FCYA), we extend our sympathy to the Ponte family and pay tribute to the memory of Deeward. As Filipino youth, we are all deeply affected by this tragedy in our community and remain strong in our struggle against systemic racism and for the genuine social justice of all Filipinos.

The Filipino community suffered the loss of two youth in the first half of 2008. In April of 2008, 24 year-old Charle Dalde was killed in Richmond, B.C. The Dalde case further shocked the community when the Richmond RCMP harassed the victim’s family racially profiling Charle’s stabbing as gang-related, a claim later proven false.

Both the cases of Deeward Ponte and Charle Dalde are harsh reminders of the violence, racial profiling and negative stereotypes placed on Filipino youth in Canada. We also remember the violent deaths of 17 year-old Filipino youth such as Jeffrey Reodica who was shot and killed by Toronto police in 2004, Mao Jomar Lanot who was beaten to death outside Sir Charles Tupper school in 2003, and of the 25 Filipino students who faced harassment and physical assaults at Vancouver Technical Secondary School in 1999. Many of these youth were the children of live-in caregivers who face daily systemic challenges and barriers to their full participation and genuine settlement and integration in Canadian society.

Daisy Ponte, mother of Deeward Ponte, in a testimonial given last year expressed sadness, disbelief, anger and frustration that she had lost her son who faced challenges as a newly-arrived Filipino youth in Canada. Daisy Ponte had entered Canada under Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) in 2001. Because of restrictions of the LCP, Ponte had been separated from her two children for nearly five years before they were reunited in Canada. Deeward’s death is a testimony to the false expectations the LCP offers. The LCP is a clear example of how Canada exploits migrant women as a source of cheap labour.

The Ponte family’s story is not unique. Since the early 1980s, nearly 100,000 workers have come to Canada as live-in caregivers under the LCP and its predecessor the Foreign Domestic Movement. The LCP is a racist and anti-woman program in which mostly Filipino women are brought to Canada to do childcare or eldery care and domestic work in the homes of middle and upper-class Canadians. Ninety-five percent of all those who enter through the LCP are from the Philippines. While many women face exploitation and all forms of abuse under the LCP, we have also documented the long-term negative impacts that the LCP has on the women and their children many of whom are reunited with their mothers as strangers after five years or longer of separation..

We recognize the tragedy of Deeward Ponte’s death as a concrete example of systemic racism embedded in Canadian society. In 13 years of organizing, educating and mobilizing, and conducting social justice work with other progressive Filipino community organizations, we understand that Filipino youth in Canada face multiple barriers that continually push us into the margins of society. The lack of genuine support for proper settlement and integration, has left our youth susceptible to various forms of violence and anti-social activities.

This experience of separation, migration, and family re-unification is very traumatic for our community and takes a toll on our youth. Adding to this trauma is the worsening economic marginalization of the community they belong to.

Yet, Canada continues to exploit the Filipino community as it expands its temporary foreign worker policies modelled after the LCP. The Philippines is now the top source country for Canada for migrants and immigrants.

It is because of the exploitative and abusive nature of the LCP and the work Filipino women endure as ‘modern-day slavery’ and the long-term impacts the program has on our youth that we demand that the racist, anti-woman Live-in Caregiver Program be scrapped so that our families are not torn apart because of forced migration and the need for economic survival. We also demand social justice for our Filipino youth, their families and our community so that these tragic events will not happen again, and that we as the Filipino community can fully participate in the economic, political, social and cultural life of Canada.

Justice for Deeward and other Filipino youth victims of violence and systemic racism!

End Systemic Racism Now!

Scrap the Live-in Caregiver Program!

Social Justice for the Filipino community!

For more information, please contact:

Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada / the Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance

c/o Kalayaan Centre

451 Powell Street, Vancouver, BC V6A 1G7

Telephone: 604.215.1103

Email: ukpc_fcya@kalayaancentre.net

Website: www.kalayaancentre.net

As Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/ Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance (UKPC), we have always maintained the position that Jomar’s death was one that could have been avoided. Measures must be put in place to understand that Jomar’s death is not an isolated incident, but part of the larger systemic barriers like racism and economic marginalization that continue to block the Filipino community’s genuine participation in Canadian society.

On November 14, 2008, the report “The Roots of Youth Violence” was released in Ontario, authored by former Chief Justice Roy McMurtry and Dr. Alvin Curling. The report, commissioned by Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, emphasizes the need to research the education and justice systems and their relationship to marginalized communities in an effort to understand the root causes of youth violence. McMurtry and Curling outline factors such as poverty, racism, a lack of job opportunities and an apathetic education system as being contributing factors that funnel youth into violent conditions.

As members of UKPC, we recognize “The Roots of Youth Violence” report and Premier McGuinty’s interest in collecting race-based, particularly from community-led organizations that are doing the ground work to empower youth, and assert that for over 12 years, UKPC has been conducting such work at a municipal, provincial and now federal scale. The data in the report is a re-affirmation of UKPC’s position that youth violence is strongly tied to government policies such as the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) that legislates the Filipino community into poverty and presents obstacles for settlement and integration.

Although Filipinos are the 3rd largest visible minority in Canada, we are still largely underrepresented politically, economically, and culturally. Filipino youth continue to be pushed to the margins of society. Barriers we face include systemic racism and institutions’ severe lack of understanding about the realities of Filipino and other youth of colour. In 1999, at a Vancouver high school, Filipino students were the targets of racism by their classmates. As a result of ensuing violence, the school’s administration transferred 25 of the Filipino youth to various schools around the city. This caused many to drop out and became involved in anti-social activities. Currently, Filipino youth hold one of the highest drop out rates in major cities across Canada.

Through community efforts, advances have been made towards understanding the realities, struggles, and issues Filipino youth face day-to-day. However, more still needs to be done, otherwise institutions like our school systems will continue to play a role in our communities’ alienation and segregation in Canadian society. With the “Roots of Youth Violence” report recognizing that racism, poverty and other factors contribute to youth violence, such findings could only be effective if they are used towards creating a solution through community consultation.

We recognize that race-based data, as presented in the report’s findings, is most useful if it is implemented from a community level, with the intent of empowering the community itself. UKPC has long carried out research about the experience of Filipino youth across Canada and can show qualitatively similar findings like that of the “Roots of Youth Violence”, linking youth violence to systemic racism, poverty and economic marginalization.

Issues such as economic marginalization, family separation and reunification are experienced by a majority of Filipino youth, who are sons and daughters of live-in caregivers. Facing poverty and lack of opportunity in the Philippines, their mothers are forced to seek better opportunities abroad while the children are left to stay. Community based research has shown an average time of 7-8years of separation. When they are finally reunited in Canada, they are reunited as strangers while at the same time our youth must contend with adapting to a new life, culture and society. Currently, 95% of workers coming under the LCP are Filipino women, and their children are the most affected as they are the ones left behind while their parents are working abroad.

An even more daunting indication of racism and violence as experienced by Filipino youth is the criminalization within the justice system. Filipino youth find themselves voiceless within the justice system as they are represented as either gang members or victims of violence.

The death of Jomar Lanot and the 1999 Vancouver Technical Secondary incidences are just some of many cases that highlight how violence has affected our community.

Also in 2003, we witnessed the death of Jeffrey Reodica, a 17-year old who was shot three times in the back by a plainclothes police officer. Jeffrey was accused of having a knife with him during the time of the shooting, although no witness ever saw a knife in his hands. Jeffrey’s case is yet another tragic example of how greatly violence is rooted within racism and oppression. We also cannot forget how the community was shaken yet again in 2008, with the stabbing death of 15-year old Deward Ponte in January, and the case of police harassment faced by the Cezar and Harlyn Dalde after the stabbing death of their son Charle near their Richmond, BC home. Almost all of these cases involved a history of family separation and reunification caused by the LCP. Over the years, there have been too many tragic cases involving the youth in our community and as UKPC, we are committed to finding and end to youth violence, and will continue to organize Filipino youth towards genuine empowerment.

Despite the difficulties and tragedies we face, UKPC continues to fight for the rights and welfare of Filipino youth across Canada. We recently had members take part in a community-led national research conference, organized by the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC). The conference, entitled “Filipino Community and Beyond: Towards Full Participation in a Multicultural and Multi-ethnic Canada,” was held on November 6-9 at the University of Toronto and tackled 4 major issues of settlement and integration for Filipinos in Canada. One major issue discussed was “Making the Filipino youth count in the community’s future.” Panels and workshops about the youth involved topics such as combatting systemic racism, youth drop-outs and the education system, youth employment, and family reunification and migration. There were youth and student participants that came from Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg and Vancouver who showcased their work and achievements towards overcoming the systemic barriers we face as a community. It is just one example of how Filipino youth across Canada are taking initiative in the community, and making their future count in Canada.

So while we take time to mourn the loss of Mao Jomar Lanot, we also remember Jeffrey Reodica, Deward Ponte, Charle Dalde and the others who have made sacrifices great and small to contributing to our community in Canada.

As members of UKPC, we will do right by their memories by continuing to serve the needs and interests of our community, empower our young people, understand our history and struggle for genuine change, equality and social justice.

Honor the memory of Jomar!
Honor the memory of Jeffrey, Deward and Charle!
Scrap the Live-in Caregiver Program! End family separation!
Provide genuine programs and services for Filipino youth!
Heighten our Unity and Advance the Struggle Against Systemic Racism!
End Systemic Racism Now!

prepared by

Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/ Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance – National

British Columbia
c/o The Kalayaan Centre
451 Powell Street
Vancouver, V6A 1G7
604-215-1103
ukpc_fcya@kalayaancentre.net

On November 6-9, 2008, the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC), in partnership with Canadian Heritage, will hold it’s first-ever community-led and community-based national research conference called “Filipino Community and Beyond: Towards full participation in a multicultural and multi-ethnic Canada” at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario.

The conference will showcase NAPWC’s three-year project in addressing the most important issues confronting Filipinos and their community in the course of their settlement and integration in Canada.  “With the rapidly growing Filipino community in Canada, the lack of our full participation in civic, political, economic and cultural affairs in Canadian society has major impacts in our community’s successful settlement and integration.  This is an urgent issue that needs to be addressed in our community organizing,” stated Cecilia Diocson, Executive Director of NAPWC.

Since the launching of its three-year project in January 2006, NAPWC has been addressing key issues in overcoming economic marginalization; enhancing Filipino women’s equality, human rights and genuine development; combating systemic racism and making the Filipino youth count in Canada’s future.  Various community-led and community-based research, consultations, meetings and focus groups were held to further explore these issues and develop strategies that will enhance the full participation of the community in a multicultural society.

The conference will prominently figure the project’s enduring impact on community development; skills and capacity building; community-based research and collaboration with the academe and other research bodies; and public policy engagement.  It will underscore over two years work of educating, mobilizing and organizing around issues confronting the community and its members.

Leah Diana, NAPWC project coordinator in Vancouver, stated, “this project highlights the significant impacts in community development through skills and capacity-building, research and public policy engagement.  It is a testament of our assertion as a community towards our genuine development and empowerment.”

The conference program will include panel discussions, involving academic and community-based researchers, community organizers and activists; and workshops and research papers presentations on issues related to settlement and integration. In addition, cultural presentations and art exhibits from the Filipino community characterizing its experiences and reality will be integrated as part of the program.

NAPWC is now accepting registration for this 3 ½ day conference.  Registration fee is $150.00.  For students, community members and activists, the fee is $75.00.  The fee includes all conference meals and materials.

To register or for more information, contact the Conference Secretariat c/o:

Cecilia Diocson
pwcofquebec@gmail.com
514-678-3901

Joy C. Sioson
pwcontario@yahoo.ca
416-519-2553

Cecilia Diocson
Executive Director, NAPWC

Philippine Women Centre of Ontario (PWC-ON) Member of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC) Telephone: 416-878-8772

Then stick around for some BBQ!

Gising na kabataan!
Start Time: 18:00
Date: 2008-09-19

Filipino Community’s Issues and Challenges Expressed by Youth at Successful Cultural Night

On August 7, 2008, Ugnayan Ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance of Ontario (UKPC/FCYA-ON) hosted its first cultural and open mic night, “Pinoy Poetiks”, at the University of Toronto’s historic Hart House.

Nearly 100 youth of Filipino descent ranging from different backgrounds and age groups attended, with over 20 different performers. The event was held to fundraise for the organization’s upcoming “Balik Ugat Balik Komunidad” (Reclaiming our Roots, Back to the Community) capacity-building workshop series, as well as the “Filipino Community and Beyond: Towards Full Participation in a Multicultural and Multi-ethnic Canada” national research conference held by the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada with Heritage and Multiculturalism Canada, commencing this upcoming November at the University of Toronto.

The evening was opened by members of UKPC, including some well-known artists, R. Scribe, Dagamuffin and UGN Son, and FenaxiZ. Pinoy Poetiks showcased the rich talent of young Filipinos and expressed the diversity of their voices through spoken word, poetry, song and dance, while highlighting the themes in the “Balik Ugat Balik Komunidad” workshop series, such as systemic racism, the women’s question, Filipino migration and Philippine history. Initiated by UKPC’s Cultural Committee, the event’s objective was to explore these issues through the arts and to express empowerment, as well as the youth’s activism to these causes for the community. “Expression of activism and resistance through different artistic media is an effective tool for consciousness-raising and community empowerment” stated Qara Clemente, one of the night’s emcees. “The significant role culture plays in our society extends to all sectors of the community, not just within the youth.”

The event allowed the attendees to see the growing talent within Filipino youth, as well as the issues that surround them on a daily basis. “I was able to hear youth express frankly on their experiences of racism, family separation, and of being young women and young immigrants”, stated Bryan Taguba a UKPC member. “It’s clear that cultural expression of our issues is needed among us”.

UKPC/FCYA-ON is the result of dynamism of Filipino youth and our desire to build a strong and united Filipino community that reflects the vision of a genuinely just and free society where marginalized people are no longer exploited and oppressed.

For more information, contact Ian Nillas at 416-519-2553 or email ukpc-on@magkaisacentre.org.

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TORONTO, ON – While summertime in Toronto is full of festivals celebrating the diversity of cultures that depict the city’s population, Filipino youth are gathering to identify and explore their Filipino heritage in a month-long workshop series: “Balik Ugat, Balik Komunidad” (Back to the Roots, Back to the Community). Young minds can wander during summer breaks from university, high school, and work, but the workshop promises to energize these minds by uncovering their Filipino roots, identify contemporary issues facing the community, develop skills in activism and organizing, and towards the pursuit for an artistic outlet. The workshops are designed with the intention and purpose of building our capacity to further advance our struggle towards equality, genuine development and full participation in Canadian society.

The BUBK workshop series is hosted by Ugnayan Ng Kabataang Pilipino Sa Canada / Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance-Ontario, and is in partnership with the Philippine Women’s Centre of – Ontario and SIKLAB Ontario. The series will be held bi-weekly, Monday evenings and Saturday afternoons, beginning on August 9th and will run until September 6th. The series will take place at the University of Toronto, St. George Campus.

“This series of workshop is a testament that with the growing Filipino community in Canada, there is a need to advance our educating, organizing and mobilizing work by deepening our understanding of the issues that we face and by building our capacity towards our empowerment, ” says Kim Abis, outreach coordinator, UKPC/FCYA-ON. “By engaging in a collective study to develop our skills capacity and by sharing experiences with members of PWC and SIKLAB, we are strengthening our ability and our resolve to fight for the rights and welfare of the Filipino community in Canada,” stated Abis.

Topics to be covered include:
History of Filipino Migration
The Live-in Caregiver Program and It’s Impacts
Media Skills
Anti-Racism
Arts and Culture
The Women’s Question
Participatory Action Research
Philippine History from Pre-Colonial to EDSA

There is also a practical component consisting of a research and art project that can be included in the upcoming National Research Conference on November 6th to 9th 2008 hosted by the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada with Canadian Heritage and Multiculturalism at and the University of Toronto.

The cost for all 9 workshops is $30 and registration is required. Simply fill out the form and drop it off with your payment to the Magkaisa Centre. Registration forms can also be filled online at http://www.magkaisacentre.org/bubk-registration/

For detailed information on the individual workshops and their exact dates and times, please see the attached brochure or check out the webpage at http://www.magkaisacentre.org/bubk/ or contact Kim Abis at the Magkaisa Centre at 416-519-2553.

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Toronto, ON – Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance-ON (UKPC/FCYA-ON) will be hosting its very first “Pinoy Poetiks” on August 7, 2008, 7:30 p.m. at Hart House, Arbor Room, University of Toronto (7 Hart House Circle, Toronto). This night will showcase the rich talent of young Filipinos and express the diversity of their voices through spoken word, poetry, song and dance.

With the theme “Balik Ugat, Balik Komunidad” (Reclaiming our Roots, Back to the Community), Pinoy Poetiks tackles the country’s most pressing issues, both in Canada and in the Philippines. Filipino identity, human rights, systemic racism, women’s issues, and a history of activism are only some of the topics that will be expressed through various artistic mediums.

“Culture is an effective tool for community empowerment, and the Filipino youth is really waking up to this fact,” says Noel Matta, a rapper and member of UKPC originating from Scarborough, who is also known by his stage name FenaxiZ. The UKPC Kultural Collective aims to express the struggles the different sectors the Filipino community face today. Not only does Pinoy Poetiks offer a space for the exploration of these issues, it also highlights the role of arts and culture in community’s empowerment.

This event also marks the beginning of the workshop series called “Balik Ugat, Balik Komunidad” coordinated by UKPC-ON with the Philippine Women Centre of Ontario and SIKLAB (Advance and Uphold the Rights of Overseas Filipino Workers). Kelly Botengan, a member of SIKLAB-ON stated that the workshop series will, “serve to educate through a collective study our people’s struggles here and in the Philippines, and to build our capacity to further advance the rights and welfare of our community in Canada.” Proceeds of Pinoy Poetiks will go towards the “Balik Ugat, Balik Komunidad” workshops and the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC) and Heritage and Multicultural Canada nationwide research conference entitled “Filipino Community and Beyond: Towards full participation in a multicultural and multi-ethnic Canada” which will be held on November 6-9 at the University of Toronto.

UKPC/FCYA-ON is the result of dynamism of Filipino youth and our desire to build a strong and united Filipino community that reflects the vision of a genuinely just and free society where marginalized people are no longer exploited and oppressed.

For more information, contact Ian Nillas at 416-519-2553 or email ukpc-on@magkaisacentre.org
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