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

Filipino-Canadian youth gather to celebrate the spirit of resistance

Toronto, ON – November 19, 2009 – The excitement builds up as Filipino-Canadian youth from all over Toronto are gathering for a full-day event to mark the 2nd anniversary of the rebuilding of Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance (UKPC/FCYA) – Ontario. To be held at the University of Toronto on November 28th, 2009, Palakasin ang Ugnayan: Tuloy ang Laban! Filipino Youth Continue the Legacy of Resistance aims to celebrate the advances and gains UKPC/FCYA-ON has made over the past two years. At the same time, the event serves as a reiteration of their call for a stronger local and national organizations that advances the struggles of Filipino youth in Canada.

On Andres Bonifacio Day in 2007, the first Palakasin was held, entitled Palakasin ang tunay na Uganayan! Strenghtening our Youth, Unite for Freedom! It was a province-wide youth consultation that laid the foundation to re-establish UKPC in Ontario. Following the event, a commitment to building a militant youth organization materialized through various educational and cultural initiatives, community mobilizations, and research projects. Now in 2009, UKPC-FCYA celebrates not only its growth in numbers, but also the positive impact it has made to community. “We have come a long way since the first Palakasin,” says Aila Comilang, one of the event’s main organizers. “Our members saw it fit to both reflect on and celebrate the empowerment we as students, young women and young workers have all collectively reached.”

A free public event, Palakasin will feature panel discussions on the presence of the Filipino community in Canada, the myth of multiculturalism and the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP), as well as testimonials from community members on their experiences under the LCP, racism in the workplace and young women organizing. Workshops will provide the opportunity to share experiences and strategize on more youth-led initiatives that will tackle issues on racism and young women’s issues. Infused with poetry, music and art, UKPC-FCYA envisions Palakasin to be the space that fosters true participation and active engagement.

Making up a significant proportion of the 3rd largest ethnic group in Canada, “Filipino youth continue to struggle with racism in the education system and in the workplace, high drop-out rates and outright police brutality,” according to the group. Their community research projects have also exposed the negative impacts of the federal Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) trickling down to the younger generation. Based on their work with Philippine Women Centre of Ontario (PWC-ON) and SIKLAB (a migrant worker’s organization), the group describes the racism, sexism and explicit social exclusion perpetuated through this program, that push the youth further into the margins.

But amidst worsening conditions, UKPC-FCYA has taken a position in redefining the role of Filipino youth in the community’s future in Canada. Ken Santos, a UKPC member, expressed that they draw inspiration from the “rich history of resistance generations before us have exemplified.” It is a history that goes all the way back from the anti-colonial struggles led by the Katipunan in the 1800’s, the First Quarter Storm during the Marcos regime to the resiliency Filipino-Canadian youth have demonstrated over the past 15 years. “It is only through recreating this legacy of resistance that we as youth can move forward towards the settlement, integration and full entitlement of our community in Canada.”

Palakasin ang Ugnayan! also serves as an educational tool to prepare the organization for an upcoming cultural show with PWC-ON and SIKLAB on December 12. “Roots, Rhymes and Resistance” is the year’s culminating event that will give voice to the different forms of violence that Filipino women face and the different ways that they resist against them. “Hopefully Palakasin allows Filipino youth to take action in improving our lives as a community, ultimately becoming catalysts for genuine social transformation in Canada,” says Comilang.

“Palakasin ang Ugnayan! Tuloy ang Laban! Filipino Youth Continue the Legacy of Resistance”

Saturday, November 28 2009, 10:00 AM – 6:30 PM

International Student Centre

33 St. George Street

University of Toronto, downtown campus

This event is free

Venue is wheelchair accessible

Contact:

Kim Abis

ukpc-on@magkaisacentre.org

www.magkaisacentre.org

(416) 519-2553

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Filipino community turning up the dial on resistance

Toronto, ON – November 18, 2009 – Members of Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance – Ontario (UKPC/FCYA-ON) are celebrating the community’s history through a cultural event, with an undeniable theme of resistance. “Roots, Rhymes and Resistance (RRR),” originally showcased in Vancouver for over a decade, will now be introduced in Toronto under the name “Roots, Rhymes and Resistance: Turn Up the Resistance!”

Toronto’s first ever RRR will not only be organized by youth and other members of the community, but will also feature talent from the Magkaisa Centre’s community-based organizations. Performers will include members of UKPC/FCYA-ON, the Philippine Women Centre of Ontario (PWC-ON) and SIKLAB-ON. Spoken word artist Dagamuffin and singer Marylou David will also showcase their talent for the night. The show will be held at the Arbor Room at the University of Toronto’s Hart House on December 12, 2009 from 7:30 PM – 9:30 PM. Far from your average tinikling and tulaan, RRR will celebrate the Filipino culture of resistance and express the community’s issues through music, spoken word, theatre, multimedia and dance. Tickets are being sold for $10 in advance and at the door.

Since 2006, UKPC/FCYA-ON has been educating, organizing and mobilizing Filipino youth to tackle the issues that they face as youth of colour in Canada. Through their organizing work, Filipino youth have been actively creating a culture of resistance, one that awakens youth to their potential in both shaping their reality and the community’s future in Canada. “We see a large number of Filipino youth facing racism and economic marginalization, dropping out of high school and being forced into service sector jobs. And we refuse to take this as part of the norm,” states Marylou David, member of UKPC. As a cultural show, Roots, Rhymes and Resistance not only acts a recognition of the realities that the Filipino community faces but also challenges the community to take concrete action towards their settlement, integration and full entitlement in Canada.

Toronto’s very first RRR will take on the issue of ending violence against Filipino women as its central theme. Since a majority of the Filipino community is composed of women, this issue reverberates through the entire community, especially in the context of the ongoing forms of violence perpetuated by the racist and anti-woman Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP). Toronto’s very first RRR will give voice to the different forms of violence that Filipino women face and the different ways that they resist against them. RRR’s cultural performances draw upon the lives of Filipino women and their families, as impacted by the detrimental effects of the LCP. The performances will show how these issues impact the entire community, and also express the critical need for empowering the community towards change.

This year’s show marks the first ever Roots, Rhymes and Resistance in Toronto. It also marks new forms and ways of creatively expressing the community’s history and current issues. The songs, plays and dances that will be showcased will serve as living expressions of the Filipino community’s collective history and struggles as the third largest visible minority in Canada. “It’s an exciting moment,” says Marylou David. “This is the first time that we are doing a cultural showcase that truly reflects our community’s legacy of resistance. That’s where we draw our inspiration and creativity from.” Without a doubt, “Roots, Rhymes and Resistance: Turn Up the Resistance!” will be the first of many different cultural forms of expression in Toronto.

“Roots, Rhymes and Resistance: Turn Up the Resistance!”
Saturday, December 12, 2009, 7:30 PM – 9:30 PM
Doors open at 7:00 PM, show starts at 7:30 PM
Arbor Room
7 Hart House Circle
U of T Downtown Campus
$10 Cover

Contact:
Kim Abis
ukpc-on@magkaisacentre.org
(416) 519-2553

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cforms contact form by delicious:days

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

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Filipino-Canadian youth voice the community’s need for a Poverty-Free Ontario

Toronto, ON – November 5, 2009 – On this national Day of Action, Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance–Ontario stands in solidarity with student and community groups as we struggle for accessible education and a Poverty-Free Ontario. We are united with various groups in the recognition that the lack of accessible education is only one aspect of a larger systemic problem. Poverty in Ontario affects us all, as systemic barriers withhold us from accessing adequate social services such as childcare, housing, job training and proper wages.

We have continually witnessed tuition fees increasing with each passing year, as more and more students are no longer able to afford a full-time education, much less provide for their basic necessities. Ontario now has the highest tuition fees in Canada, fees that are increasing up to 8 percent each year. We are affected by education that is becoming increasingly exclusive, one that presents an idealized vision of the education system, while preventing the participation of people from marginalized communities. Though tuition fees have continually increased, financial aid has become more scarce. Students are relying more and more on student loans and casual jobs to finance their education. On the other hand, universities have increased their spending for infrastructural and research initiatives, while claiming to support “diversity” and “community relations.” Such issues only begin to scratch the surface. In racialized communities where high drop-out rates become persistent, access to post-secondary education becomes a privilege earned only by a few.

For Filipino-Canadian youth, having accessible education means, first and foremost, tackling issues of economic marginalization and systemic racism. Our lack of participation in post-secondary education is an important part of our need for survival and prosperity, but there are more pressing issues at hand. Our youth are experiencing personal and systemic forms of violence in their schools and workplaces. Our workers remain in the service sector from not having the financial wherewithal to access costly upgrading courses when their foreign credentials are not accredited. Our women are being funneled into the Canadian job market as live-in caregivers who earn minimum wage while sending money to support their families back home. Children of domestic workers are disproportionately affected by the Live-in Caregiver Program as they are forced to drop out of high school to work in order to augment their family’s income. Besides facing economic hardships, they also have to deal with a family whose dynamics have been affected by years of family separation. Since a majority of our community is composed of women and youth, the effects of such issues are real and ever-pressing. Having access to education is only one aspect of the Filipino community’s struggle towards our successful settlement and integration in Canadian society.

We are not only Filipino youth who are affected by poverty, we are also Filipino-Canadians who are advocating for our community’s genuine participation and full entitlement in Canadian society. We challenge all participants on this national Day of Action to look into their own lives and their own communities and draw the links we have with one another. We are not just students, women, Filipinos, Afro-Caribbean, workers, immigrants, refugees, Tamils, queers – we all suffer from different forms of systemic oppression. And we all have the ability to resist.

Contact:
Kim Abis
ukpc-on@magkaisacentre.org
(416) 519-2553

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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

On this year’s International Women’s Day, the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada continues to call for the scrapping of the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) and sends warm and militant greetings of solidarity to all working women around the globe who are struggling for equality, justice and genuine development.

We remember and pay homage to the 20,000 immigrant women garment workers in the United States, who took to the streets in 1908 to struggle for better working conditions. Their struggles inspired socialist women to call for the first International Women’s Day. We also honor the struggles of women around the world who have devoted and offered their lives to the struggle for national and social liberation and for genuine equality for women and against all forms of exploitation and oppression.

As the global economic crisis worsens, women around the world and in Canada are the hardest hit. In Canada with already 100,000 people recently joining the ranks of the unemployed, the ever-dwindling social safety net through cutbacks to government spending on housing, welfare, education and welfare have long been impacting women. The government’s neo-liberal policies of liberalization, deregulation and privatization over the last decade have pushed women into low-paying flexible, part-time or casual jobs in order to make ends meet.

Because of imperialist globalization and the chronic economic crisis in the Philippines, many Filipino women make the heart-breaking choice to leave their families behind and migrate abroad for their family’s survival to work in the most dirty, difficult and dangerous jobs around the world. Since the early 1980’s, nearly 100,000 Filipino women have come to Canada to work as live-in caregivers under Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s Live-in Caregiver Program and its predecessor the Foreign Domestic Movement.

After 17 years of the LCP, our women and community have faced the negative short-term and long-term impacts of this racist and anti-woman program. Their labour liberates one class of women from domestic work leaving working class women with little to no childcare options. Filipino women under the LCP from all forms of abuse under slave-like conditions, and are sentenced to a lifetime of de-skilling. Even after the LCP, many families continue to feel the impacts of the program through continued economic, social and political marginalization in Canadian society.

As the “ilaw ng tahanan” many Filipino women in Canada are expected to meet the impossible demands of being the main or sole-breadwinners in the family while carrying the responsibility for domestic and reproductive labour. The trauma of family separation, migration and reunification often results in family breakdown for which women are often blamed or stigmatized.

After two decades of organizing Filipino women and the community and calling for the scrapping the LCP, some groups in the Filipino community have begun to call for mere reforms to the program arguing that scrapping the program will mean women can no longer migrate to Canada. This is a backward call in which women who are suffering at the forefront of attacks are being offered mere band-aid solutions. Filipino women should have the same rights as other immigrants to migrate to Canada with their families with permanent residency and the right to choose their employment. They should not come to Canada as modern-day slaves.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney has recently announced plans to hold a “consultation” about the LCP. While we welcome dialogue about the program, we forewarn the Minister that similar previous “consultations” did not result in any significant changes to the program and to the lives of Filipino women.

Rather the situation of Filipino women in Canada, particularly live-in caregivers is worsening. Our provincial chapters are receiving reports of more and more Filipino women being trafficked into Canada by unregulated agencies and then deported “airport-to-airport.” Canadian Border Service Agents at the airports are checking the women’s work permits upon arrival and calling their employers and agencies to investigate the legitimacy of their employment. After paying thousands of dollars to unscrupulous agencies, those with employment deemed questionable are put on airplanes back to the Philippines or their country of origin without ever leaving the airport of being allowed to make a phone call.

More and more women are falling out of status, unable to complete the strict requirements of the LCP. As unemployment and the global economic crisis worsens, we can expect more women to not complete the LCP and either run the risk of joining the ranks of the undocumented or be deported back to the Philippines.

Unreasonable bureaucratic and other hurdles are resulting in delayed permanent residency and family reunification for some women. One woman who was the victim of violence has been in Canada ten years now on a temporary permit and is still waiting to reunite with her family. A single mother, she is still relegated to cleaning and domestic work as she has been unable to ugrade or accredit her skills.

Last December, the Philippines was declared the top source country to Canada for temporary migrant workers and immigrants combined, surpassing China. We are now the top source for migrant and immigrants filling Canada’s cheap labour needs as immigrant communities before us.

And while Canada continues to tout itself as a model for human rights internationally, immigrant communities alongside the historic resistance of the indigenous people of Canada are gaining support for their condemnation of Canada’s rosy human rights record.

We fear the worsening crisis will also heighten racism and sexism. As Filipino women we must combat the fear mongering of the right-wing amongst the people against immigrants and migrants and people of colour. International Women’s Day is an opportunity for women to unite in their calls to end exploitative labour programs such as the LCP.  The economic crisis should be an opportunity to pit ourselves against each other but to understand and connect our common struggles against the system that exploits and oppresses us.

Like the women workers before us, now more than ever women must become more politicized to understand their situations! Now more than ever women must get out of their houses, look beyond the welfare of their individual families, take to the streets and fight for our collective rights and welfare and for our genuine emancipation!

Scrap the racist and anti-woman Live-in Caregiver Program!
Heighten our unity and strengthen our resistance as women!
Long live international solidarity!

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

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

Filipinos welcome U.N.’s critique of Canada’s human rights record, cite human rights violations of live-in caregivers

For immediate release: February 6, 2009

A national advocacy group of Filipinos in Canada welcomed the recent recommendations of the U.N. Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) urging Canada to ratify a treaty to protect the rights of migrant workers. The UPR took place in Geneva, Switzerland on Feb. 3, 2009.

Members of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC) a national advocacy group of Filipinos in Canada say the Canadian government should listen to the U.N. body’s recommendations and the voices of Filipino migrant workers in Canada and other NGO’s who have been urging the government to ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (ICRMW) and investigate abuses under the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP).

Chapter members of the NAPWC participated in consultations in Vancouver and Toronto last month organized along with other NGOs and Indigenous peoples organizations with officials of Canadian Heritage leading up to the UPR. The NAPWC also submitted a nine-page brief to the Canadian government detailing the numerous human rights violations and lack of promotion and protection of human rights of Filipino live-in caregivers in Canada.

The brief reads, “we remain deeply concerned that there is no transparent and effective national mechanism in Canada that serves to raise human rights issues from the perspective of marginalized communities like our own. More significantly, there is no national mechanism to hold Canada We cite as examples previous treaty body recommendations that called on Canada to (1) ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (ICRMW) and (2) investigate abuses under the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP).”

The group slammed Canada’s report to the UPR for stating, “temporary foreign workers enjoy the same labour-related rights, human rights and social protections that Canadians possess. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms applies to all individuals on Canadian soil and fosters an environment of social inclusion.”

They say over 20 years of documented community-based research into the abuses of the LCP and the negative short-term and long-term impacts on the women and their families exposes Canada’s UPR report as “lies.” They say these findings have also been supported by numerous academic and media reports.

After the national consultations, a joint brief representing the NGOs and Indigenous peoples organizations was presented by members of groups such as Centre for Equality Rights and Accommodation, Social Rights Advocacy Centre, Native Women’s Association of Canada and Amnesty International to member states of the UPR in Geneva. Among the brief’s recommendations are:

“The live-in caregiver program should be discontinued and the immigration applications of caregivers should instead be processed through the regular immigration process. At a minimum the live-in requirement of the program should be abolished. More widely, the Canadian government should conduct a wide review of the various ways by which foreign nationals are employed in Canada, including individuals who have no immigration status in the country, with an eye to enacting reforms needed to ensure full protection of their human rights, including all labour rights.”

Since the early 1980’s nearly 100,000 Filipino women have come to Canada under the LCP and its predecessor the Foreign Domestic Movement.

The group has likened the program to “modern-day slavery” and calls it “racist” and “anti-woman.” They say the program does not solve the childcare crisis in Canada and promotes further privatization of the Canadian health care system. They have been advocating for its elimination for over 20 years.

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Copies of the NAPWC brief to Canada’s UPR are available by request.

To arrange an interview of for more information, please contact:

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 at ph: (604) 215-1103

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 at ph: (415) 519-2553

Montreal
Kapit Bisig Centre
4900 Rue Fulton
Montreal, Quebec H3W 1V4

E-mail: pwcofquebec@gmail.com
Phone: Cecilia Diocson, Executive Director, NAPWC at ph: (514) 678-3901

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