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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Toronto, ON – Progressive Filipino Canadians refuse to be deceived by the Conservative government’s latest attempt to mask the abuse, violence and exploitation perpetrated against live-in caregivers, of whom 81% are Filipino women that are under Canada’s Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP). The issuing of 10,000 open work permits to live-in caregivers, recently announced by Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, is yet another tactic to appease the growing awareness and dissatisfaction of the widespread exploitation, human rights abuses and violation of women’s rights occurring under a program that is based on the modern-day slavery of women.

Irrespective of Jason Kenney’s recent ploy, members of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC) have not wavered in their longstanding and resolute position to scrap the LCP, asserting that the program itself creates the conditions for the systemic violence, exploitation and abuse faced by Filipino women in Canada. Since its inception in the 1980s, more than 100,000 Filipino Canadian women have come into Canada through the program, a situation which has created the Filipino Canadian community’s economic, social, political and cultural marginalization in Canadian society. And for over two decades, the progressive Filipino Canadian community has been steadfast on calling for its abolition while recognizing in the immediate term that all live-in caregivers be granted permanent residency status upon arrival to Canada.

Despite the fact that the issuing of open work permits has always been a normal process for those who have completed the 24-month mandatory live-in requirement of the program, this so-called “unprecedented move,” that expedited the release of open work permits, is relentlessly pushed and packaged as a solution to unchain live-in caregivers from the bondage of poverty and slavery. Given the thousands of open work permit application backlogs that have piled up over the years, this is purely a desperate effort to salvage Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) from its bureaucratic failures in processing the papers of live-in caregivers on time – failures which have intensified the abusive, exploitive work conditions and created long months of restrictions for live-in caregivers to access the healthcare system in Canada.

“We have nothing to be thankful for with this so-called change. Not only do we contribute taxes to the Canadian economy, Canada, through CIC, amasses millions of dollars from open work permit applications alone as each one of us has to pay a $150 fee. We deserve this open work permit as we have paid and completed our work obligations,” says Grace Tan, a live-in caregiver and a SIKLAB member.

Exposing the contradiction behind Kenney’s claim that this “will help caregivers…while they wait for their permanent resident applications to be processed,” it is imperative to recall that last month, the Conservative government has declared plans to slash approvals of over 7,000 permanent residency applications made through the LCP in the upcoming years ahead. As such, it is most pressing to critically understand that the issuing of open work permits alone does not guarantee that live-in caregivers will be granted permanent residency in Canada, nor does it answer the issue of long years of family separation and reunification of live-in caregivers from the families they have left behind back in their countries of origin.

Exemplified through the Conservative government’s all-out attack on racialised and im/migrant communities through its massive neoliberal changes and reforms on immigration – from its plan to reduce the quotas for live-in caregivers to become permanent residents by 50%; decreasing skilled worker visas by 20%; reducing quotas for spouses and children by 4,000 per year; reducing the number of refugee applicants granted permanent residence by 25%; and imposing an indefinite moratorium on the permanent sponsorship of parents and grandparents, the current move of issuing open work permits, rather than assuring the granting of permanent residency, may possibly lead to dire consequences, such as prolonging live-in caregivers’ temporary and vulnerable status, or worse, downright denying them permanent residency and deporting them from the country for which they have worked hard for to settle in the hopes of eventually building a home.

With Canada’s crippling health care system, childcare crisis and a rapidly aging population, the demand for labour is not declining but soaring to its highest peak. As part of the Conservative government’s neoliberal concerted efforts of massive cutbacks and austerity measures, a 30% increase of workers have been funnelled in through the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP) within the past few years, in which the majority comes from the Philippines. Recruited for their labour yet disposed of when no longer needed, it is a hypocrisy that while immense profits are amassed from temporary foreign workers, Canada instead locks them into state of permanent impermanence, with minimal or no chance of acquiring permanent residency.

We, at the CPFC, reiterate our stance that the oppression and exploitation of workers under temporary migration programs such as the LCP and TFWP are not the answers to Canada’s economic, healthcare and childcare needs. Instead, they merely provide low-wage and privatized solution that pits foreign and Canadian workers against each other – as it is being used to drive down the wages of all working class Canadians, while simultaneously implementing the wide-scale contractualization of labour in Canadian society. This situation leaves all workers to an unsecured and unstable existence.

“The issuing of open work permits is rendered meaningless in the face of the Conservative government’s efforts to keep labour temporary. Eradicating the cyclical pattern of temporary labour migration is the only way to break our temporariness in Canada, says Cecilia Diocson, Executive Director of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada.” As we continue to build the path for genuine settlement and integration, members of the CPFC will continue to demand for genuine immigration programs for all racialised, working class and im/migrant communities who call Canada home.

Scrap the racist and anti-woman Live-in Caregiver Program!
Stop the expansion of the Temporary Foreign Workers Program!
Advance the movement for genuine settlement and integration!
Permanence through genuine immigration programs now!
Expose and oppose Canada’s neoliberal agenda of globalization!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

With over 120 participants, “Counterspin 3: Building a movement for social change” Ontario-wide conference, once again, heightened, with militancy, the pivotal and crucial role of marginalized communities in Canada, such as the Filipino Canadian community, to intensify the building of a genuine progressive movement that will bring about social change in a country that continues to systemically deny communities of colour their full participation and entitlement.

Held at the University of Toronto and the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education on November 19th and the 20th, respectively, “Counterspin 3” is a continuation of the Filipino Canadian community’s assertion to counter their intensifying social and political exclusion as manifested in their struggles against systemic racism, gender oppression, and economic marginalization. Organized by the Magkaisa Centre, and under the auspices of the newly formed Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC), “Counterspin 3” is symbolic of the desire of members of the Filipino Canadian community to create a path towards their just and genuine settlement and integration in Canada.

Launched in Montreal on May 2010, and followed by the conference held in Vancouver in June 2011, the series of “Counterspin” conferences is a testament of the progression in the organizing within the progressive Filipino Canadian community that embraces the working-class perspective as a primary tool to advance socialism and to counter the increasing attacks of neoliberal agenda of globalization perpetuated against the working-class and racialized peoples in Canada. More so, “Counterspin” exemplifies the growing assertion within the community to build a home and a future, nurtured in the culture of resistance and empowerment.

Delegates listen to the first panel

Steeped with enthusiasm and excitement, “Counterspin 3” conference delegates deepened their understanding of the current global politics and progressive movements; the history of Filipino Canadians; and their concrete struggles, challenges and barriers in Canada, including the role of art and cultural resistance; and the importance of understanding social services as part of a community’s full participation and entitlement.

Guest speakers Ninotchka Rosca, Filipina feminist and internationally-renowned novelist; Dr. David McNally, long-time activist and political science professor at York University; and Emmanuel Sayo, community organizer and pioneer in human rights organizing in the Filipino Canadian community, opened the conference with a critical look at the ongoing crisis of neoliberalism, and the desperate measures being taken to maintain the current system of globalization and imperialism at the expense of the world’s working-class. Along with this progressive analysis of global political economy, an emphasis was also put into the roles of resistance movements in unmasking the impending demise and the rapid deterioration of the current economic system of capitalism. The organic growth of various forms of resistance, such as the Occupy Movement, and the resistance coming from progressive migrant and immigrant communities, were reiterated as key components in bringing about genuine social change.

From left to right: Dr. David McNally, Ninotchka Rosca and Emmanuel Sayo

From an engaging discussion and debate on global politics and movement, the succeeding panels presented on the concrete expressions of the Filipino Canadian community’s current reality as a transnational community; its continuing resistance against the community’s increasing exclusion and marginalization; and most importantly, its role in reclaiming the progressive culture and history of a community that, for over 20 years, has been at the forefront of exposing and opposing the systemic violence and aggression perpetuated on Filipino Canadian women, workers, and youth, and other members of the working-class in Canada.

Emphasizing the intensifying blows of the neoliberal agenda that further marginalizes, excludes, and attacks the well-being of the growing Filipino Canadian community, panelists Joy C. Sioson and Reuben Sarumugam of the Magkaisa Centre, presented on the history of Filipino Canadians in Ontario, the making of the progressive Filipino Canadian movement, and the overview of the current conditions of one of the largest ethnic groups in the province, particularly in the City of Toronto. The delegates’ attention was drawn to the direct impacts of official federal and provincial policies that shaped and continuously shape the Filipino community in Canada. They showed that the progressive Filipino Canadian movement has also been and continues to be the driving force in combating the barriers to genuine settlement and integration through community educating, organizing, and mobilizing.

Joy Sioson, chairperson of PWC-ON and Reuben Sarumugam of UKPC/FCYA-ON

Reclaiming their roles as part of the leading force in making history and challenging the market-driven economic and social policies that perpetuate their marginalization, sectoral representatives Bryan Taguba of SIKLAB, Qara Clemente of PWC, and Ken Santos and Aila Comilang of UKPC/FCYA, posed the challenge to all Filipino Canadian workers, women and youth to cultivate a culture that will develop an empowered community, immersed in the knowledge and practice of the importance of sharpening the tools and taking the revolutionary road, towards genuine liberation, equality, and human rights for future generations. The speakers also acknowledged that the path paved by those who pioneered the organizing of progressive Filipino Canadians serves as a continuing inspiration for them to lead the future of the community.

As the new wave of community organizing in the Filipino Canadian community grows, progressive music, art and poetry depicting realities and common struggles become important tools in educating, and popularizing the creative nature of the community. Marissa Largo, Toronto-based artist and educator; Jean Marc Daga, spoken word artist and SIKLAB-ON member; and Neil Castro, Sinag Bayan founder and chairperson of the National Council of the Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance, elaborated on the arts and the cultural arena as an essential component in shaping and transforming art and culture as one that inspires collective action towards social change.

As an illustration of the creativity and talent within the Filipino Canadian community, various performances by Sinag Bayan Ontario took centre stage to depict the true force of the community’s culture of resistance. In “My Folks,” a combination of spoken word poetry and striking live gestures, performers conveyed the resiliency and militancy of the Filipino Canadian community to confront the systemic forces that relegate its members into exploitation and marginalization. In “Kapit Bisig Maleta Fashion Show,” various stories of migration were depicted by painted maletas (suitcases) bearing the portraits of community members as live-in caregivers, mail order brides, service sector workers, youth and the elderly, each embodied by their respective performers. Both pieces represented an all-out assertion that the Filipino Canadian community will continue to strengthen its resolve in their struggle for genuine settlement, full participation, and entitlement in the broader Canadian society.

Kapit Bisig Maleta fashion show

My Folks

Tying the Filipino Canadian community’s struggle for a just and genuine settlement and integration with understanding and accessing social services in Canada, the last panel examined the role of social services from the perspective of the Filipino Canadian community. Ilyan Ferrer, PhD student at McGill University and member of Kabataang Montreal; Danielle Bisnar, lawyer and PWC-ON member; and Cecilia Diocson, founder of the Philippine Women Centre, Executive Director of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada and CPFC, examined the history of social services, the barriers faced by the community in accessing adequate services, and the impacts of the extensive cutbacks and privatization of social and public services on marginalized and racialized communities. All three speakers also highlighted the important task of building the Filipino Canadian community’s capacity to understand the democratic and public provision of social services as vital for a successful and fully developed community and society.

The creative and artistic fervor of various members of Sinag Bayan Ontario, Sinag Bayan Quebec and guest performers ended the day with a much-enjoyed cultural solidarity night. Through songs, poems and dance, conference participants and organizers alike, celebrated the great success of the day’s proceedings with performances that expressed the vision of a truly empowered and liberated Filipino Canadian community.

Jean-Marc Daga, Neil Castro and Marissa Largo

The second day of “Counterspin 3” conference was a more intimate sharing and discussion on the 15 major concerns in the Filipino Canadian community. The 15 Concerns serves as the program of action that aims to address working-class issues, and to help advance the struggle for socialism in Canada. A brief study on the history of women’s oppression was also given by Ms. Rosca to further solidify and frame the importance of putting the struggle of women at the very core of the struggle for genuine liberation of the working-class.

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For more information, contact the Conference Secretariat:
Bryan Taguba
(416) 519-2553
pwc-on@magkaisacentre.org
www.magkaisacentre.org
Twitter: #Counterspin3

Toronto, ON – With the recent announcement by Immigration Minister Jason Kenney to slash approvals of over 7,000 permanent residency applications made through the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP), progressive Filipino Canadians firmly maintain that under the Conservative government’s policy-imposed age of austerity for all working-class Canadians, no amount of change or “improvement” can be made to the LCP and the endemically exploitative nature of the immigration system itself while it continues to stamp and seal entry to workers to toil under conditions of modern-day slavery.

With the passage of two years since Kenney’s holiday announcement of cosmetic changes to the LCP, we have seen no real improvement in the conditions of the Filipino Canadian community. Instead, amidst a worsening healthcare crisis and an ailing global economy, we have only witnessed the continuing marginalization and exploitation of Filipino Canadian women, youth and workers. We refuse to be duped by the blatantly aggressive attacks against our community as the unabated expansion of temporary migration continues to extend our vulnerability and to hold us hostage to our immigration status while we now face longer processing wait times for open permits and permanent residency status.

Under the Conservative government, Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s (CIC) plan to expand temporary migration includes reducing the number of caregivers granted permanent status—to 9,000 in 2012, down from 16,000 this year—and extending wait times for open permit applications from six to eight months to up to 18 months. Also, the development of the “Supervisa” for parents and grandparents has phased out permanent residency and family reunification through parent and grandparent sponsorship indefinitely. It is no accident that such slashes and cuts are occurring while recorded applications for entry under the LCP are at their highest, and while demand for the cheap, yet skilled provision of childcare and healthcare is at its peak.

Members of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC) assert that the LCP has never been an answer for Canada’s childcare and healthcare needs. Instead, it has merely provided a temporary, low-wage and privatized solution for our inadequate and declining healthcare system. Since its implementation in the 1980s, it has systematically brought over 100,000 Filipino women and their families to settle in Canada under the guise of conditional opportunities, yet continues to deny them their just and genuine settlement and integration, as majority of the Filipino Canadian community continue to suffer the impacts of deskilling, family separation, systemic racism and economic marginalization.

“We strive to contribute to Canadian society while the concerted efforts of the neoliberal agenda prevent us from genuinely settling, integrating and fully participating in a place that is now also our home. Alongside our mothers who have been brought in under the LCP, we continue to be segregated to low-wage and casualized jobs. While newcomer families are trapped in a cycle of poverty, it is no surprise that we have some of the highest high school dropout rates in Canada’s major cities,” says Neil Castro, Chairperson of UKPC/FCYA’s National Council.

An estimated $25 billion is what the Canadian government is saving in healthcare costs due to the contribution of over 2 million unpaid caregivers, who often perform duties that would require the attention of healthcare professionals and support workers. Under the live-in caregiver program, healthcare professionals, especially nurses from the Philippines, are placed under strict conditions not to practice their profession or go back to school in order to complete their requirements. Often paid at a rate of less than minimum wage, live-in caregivers perform care work for all demographics in Canada, but also perform housework and additional duties outside the specifications of the program. The work of unpaid caregivers and live-in caregivers is an example of the cost cutting and privatized measures our government has taken to buttress our crippling healthcare system.

In addition, the all-around costs of immigration, including applications for work permits, landing fees, board and lodging, purchasing goods and contributing taxes, are being made at the expense of transnational working class communities, while Canada saves further healthcare dollars. “We cannot accept being cheap disposable commodities,” says Cecilia Diocson, Executive Director of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada. “We refuse to live under constant fear and threat of deportation while we contribute so much to Canadian society.”

“Our lives are more than just numbers,” contends Roderick Carreon, National Chairperson of SIKLAB Canada. “Our lives cannot be capped like quotas. We must demand genuine immigration programs and demand a stop to temporariness and migrant work programs as the only means for our community to come to Canada.” Members of the CPFC will continue to demand for the fulfillment of our lives as working class peoples by building the path towards our just and genuine settlement and integration.

Stop the deportation of live-in caregivers!
No to the expansion of the temporary foreign workers program!
Scrap the racist and anti-woman Live-in Caregiver Program!
Advance the struggle for a just and genuine settlement and integration!

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

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

Toronto, ON – In just a few days, Ontario’s Filipino Canadian community will readily advance their struggle for a just and genuine settlement and integration to greater heights as “Counterspin: Building a Movement for Social Change” commences. Only several days remain in the countdown to this historic two-day conference that will counter the community’s cycle of marginalization and impermanence by creating a unified movement that strives for full participation in Canadian society and embraces their pivotal role in creating genuine social change. Organized under the auspices of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC), “Counterspin” will advance the successes from its previous occurrences in Montreal and Vancouver at the University of Toronto’s Claude T. Bissell Building and Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.

A press conference will be held on November 19th for members of the media. Interviews will be provided by speakers and organizers such as award-winning novelist and internationally-renowned feminist Ninotchka Rosca, long-time community organizer and human rights activist Emmanuel Sayo and the Executive Director of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada, Cecilia Diocson. As well, Joy Sioson, Chairperson of the Philippine Women Centre of Ontario and Counterspin Conference Secretariat will be available for interview. “Counterspin” will provide all participants with an opportunity to join in the transformative discussion that will envision and execute change that will allow the Filipino Canadian community to take root, build a home and further contribute to Canadian society and history.

“Counterspin: Building a Movement for Social Change”
Ontario-wide conference
Organized under the auspices of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC)
Day 1: Claude T. Bissell Building, Room 205, University of Toronto
Day 2: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Room 5250, University of Toronto
Registration is $20.00 (includes meals and conference materials)

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REGISTER NOW to attend the conference and for media access to the “Counterspin” press conference: http://bit.ly/counterspin3

For more information, contact the Conference Secretariat:
Bryan Taguba
(416) 519-2553
pwc-on@magkaisacentre.org
www.magkaisacentre.org
Twitter: #Counterspin3

Toronto, ON – The progressive Filipino Canadian community are gearing up to take the next steps toward genuine settlement and integration in Canadian society as the Ontario-wide conference titled “Counterspin: Building a Movement for Social Change” boldly asserts the community’s role in helping build Canada’s history. It will take place at the University of Toronto campus, Claude T. Bissell Building on November 19th and will continue the next day at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.

As “Counterspin” provides the context of globalization, its particular impact is undoubtedly felt most, in the Filipino Canadian community, by the women, workers and youth. However, the issues faced by Filipino women, workers, and youth in Canada under neoliberalism does not mean that as a community, Filipinos are powerless to the various government labour policies and program implementations that relegate Filipinos to low-wage service sector jobs and deskill many members in the community. Against this dominant pattern, community members will affirm their crucial roles as builders and makers of Canadian society who have the tools to counter these relegations and create their own path towards genuine settlement and integration.

Panel speakers include members from the various fields of arts and culture, political science, literature, law, and community based organizations. Some of these include internationally-renowned feminist Ninotchka Rosca, Emmanuel Sayo, community organizer of Philippines-Canada Task Force on Human Rights and David McNally, a leading Marxist scholar, activist and professor in the Political Science department at York University. They will provide the context of how globalization and transnationalism under the neoliberal agenda directly affect the Filipino Canadian community. In the arts and culture area, Marissa Largo, a PhD candidate and art teacher at Mary Ward will bring out the history of how arts and culture play a role in community-building. To speak on the issue of social services within the community, Danielle Bisnar, Ilyan Ferrer, and Cecilia Diocson will bring forth the analysis of social services coming from the Filipino Canadian community itself. Speakers from the Magkaisa Centre will be part of the panel to elucidate the community’s experiences and analysis necessary to take the next steps toward genuine settlement and integration.

The third installment of “Counterspin” will stamp a historical mark in the movement for genuine social change in Canada that recognizes the struggle of the working class, youth, and women at the forefront of Canadian society. It will assert the working class struggle of the community as part of genuine women’s liberation, fearlessly carried out within the next generation of Filipino Canadians. The Magkaisa Centre invites all to be part of this dialogue to continue building this culture of resistance and furthering the strides towards full participation in Canadian society.

“Counterspin: Building a Movement for Social Change”
Ontario-wide conference
Organized under the auspices of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC)
Claude T. Bissell Building, Room 205, University of Toronto
Registration is $20.00 (includes meals and conference materials)

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REGISTER NOW: http://bit.ly/counterspin3

For more information, contact the Conference Secretariat:
Bryan Taguba
(416) 519-2553
pwc-on@magkaisacentre.org
www.magkaisacentre.org
Twitter: #Counterspin3

Toronto, ON – As the deepening crisis of neoliberal globalization is becoming increasingly apparent, the Filipino Canadian community across Ontario is readily countering their marginalization through “Counterspin 3: Building a Movement for Social Change.” Organized under the auspices of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC), this historic gathering will advance the community’s struggle for genuine settlement and integration at the crux of the movement of the working class.

Building on the success of the previous “Counterspin” conferences in Montreal and Vancouver, the conference will awaken all to their realities and their potential in building a vibrant and enduring movement for social change that puts the struggle of the transnational working class at its fore. At the first panel, Ninotchka Rosca, an internationally-renowned writer and revolutionary feminist will counter imperialism’s narrative of temporary migration for Filipinos around the world by understanding the right of the transnational working class to take root and create a home wherever we are. Emmanuel Sayo of the Philippines-Canada Task Force on Human Rights will elucidate the concept of genuine settlement and integration and its significance to the Filipino Canadian community. David McNally, a York University professor and leading political theorist, will discuss the current global economic crisis and its impacts on im/migrant communities.

The next two panels will then zoom out from the global picture and into the history of Filipino Canadians in Ontario as it has shaped the province’s history and Canadian society in order to put the community’s call for genuine settlement and integration into perspective. Next, members of the Phillipine Women Centre of Ontario, Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance¬—Ontario and SIKLAB Ontario will advance the role of women, workers and youth as makers of history by drawing on their distinct yet intertwined experiences and struggles, particularly as the Philippines is now the top source of immigrants in Ontario.

Towards concretely addressing the community’s needs of settlement and integration, the following panel on social services will discuss its importance beyond the terms of accessibility and into developing a critical understanding of social services from the community’s perspective. Speakers from national women’s organizations, the academe and the legal field will come to grips with the dismantling of social services as it goes hand in hand with neoliberal immigration and labour policies. For the final panel, Filipino Canadian artists and community organizers from across Canada will reclaim art and culture for the people and its importance in building a movement for social change.

With over 250,000 Filipino Canadians in Ontario, “Counterspin” will be pivotal in not only exposing the systemic issues that marginalize the Filipino Canadian community in Ontario, but in also creating tools that will facilitate their just and genuine settlement and integration. “We should not accept the growing marginalization, deskilling and constant exclusion our community faces. We should be well-equipped with the knowledge and tools to advance the struggles of our community,” says Grace Tan, member of PWC-ON and SIKLAB-ON. Armed with a comprehensive vision for an empowered community and a transformative society, all participants are invited to embrace the limitless possibilities in building a movement for social change that will combat the further exploitation of women, youth and workers.

“Counterspin: Building a Movement for Social Change”
Ontario-wide conference
Organized under the auspices of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC)
Claude T. Bissell Building, Room 205, University of Toronto
Registration is $20.00 (includes meals and conference materials)

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REGISTER NOW: http://bit.ly/counterspin3

For more information, contact the Conference Secretariat:
Bryan Taguba
(416) 519-2553
pwc-on@magkaisacentre.org
www.magkaisacentre.org
Twitter: #Counterspin3

Ontario’s growing Filipino Canadian community buzzes with excitement as the Magkaisa Centre prepares to host Toronto’s first ever Counterspin conference. Determined to carry on the successes of previous Counterspin conferences in Montreal and Vancouver, the progressive Filipino Canadian movement towards genuine integration and settlement in Canada will accelerate into high gear on November 19th to 20th less than a month from today. Organized under the auspices of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC), this two-day conference titled “Counterspin: Building a Movement for Social Change” will have five panel lectures featuring a number of local and international academics, community activists and artists.

Day one will begin with guest speakers Ninotchka Rosca, the acclaimed international author and feminist; long-time community activist and organizer Emmanuel Sayo, a member of Philippines Canada Task Force on Human Rights; and Professor David McNally of York University. Their panel will focus on creating and nurturing the new path towards social change by introducing the context of transnationalism, globalization and the struggle for genuine settlement and integration.

Panelists and community organizers from the Philippines Women Centre of Ontario (PWC-ON), Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance¬—Ontario (UKPC/FCYA-ON) and SIKLAB-ON (Filipino Canadian workers organization) will also highlight the history and resistance of Filipino Canadian women, youth, and workers while revealing the challenges ahead. Next, they will emphasize the importance of accessing social services from the community’s perspective. The final panel will discuss art and culture as an integral component in countering the community’s marginalization.

Day two aims to prove that actions speak louder than words. Action planning sessions will be held for the community to collectively discuss how to counter the community’s cycle of poverty towards taking root and building a home in Canadian society.

All are invited to connect on a meaningful level, share experiences and learn from each other in order to build a movement for social change.

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Click here to register: http://www.magkaisacentre.org/2011/10/17/counterspin/

For more information, contact the Conference Secretariat:
Bryan Taguba
(416) 519-2553
pwc-on@magkaisacentre.org
www.magkaisacentre.org
Twitter: #Counterspin3

Marching under slogans such as “We are the 99%” and chanting to expose the “rising gap between the rich and the poor,” progressive Filipino Canadians recognize this increasing stratification not only as chants but as harsh realities felt in the lives of the growing Filipino Canadian transnational community. With the Philippines now the largest source of immigrants in Toronto and the whole of Canada, Filipino Canadians are denied their genuine settlement and integration in Canadian society as they are relegated as sources of cheap and temporary labour through neoliberal labour programs such as the Live-in Caregiver Program and the Temporary Foreign Workers Program.

Moreover, the Conservative government’s massive cutbacks on settlement programs last year and more recently on social services, the privatization of essential public services, and their incessant drive towards the contractualization of labour are clear indications of the Conservative government’s concerted efforts to prevent immigrant, racialised and working class communities from genuinely settling, successfully integrating and fully participating in Canadian society. Such cutbacks are being implemented alongside financial policy initiatives geared towards bolstering corporate investment.

Canada, being an advanced capitalist country, is not immune to the worsening global crisis. In fact, it addresses it by fervently pushing for the rabid implementation of its neoliberal agenda. As Canada’s continuous economic growth immensely relies on immigration, its insistence on temporary migration and the cyclical importation of cheap and temporary labour from the Global South and exploitation of these workers in Canada is a clear response to this crisis and therefore cannot be ignored. As such, progressive Filipino Canadians urge all to realize and to critically understand these growing movements as symptomatic of the growing crisis of capitalism brought upon by the neoliberal agenda of globalization.

As capitalism’s crisis intensifies, progressive Filipino Canadians will continue to march in solidarity with the 99% with a strong resolve to break the cycle of temporary migration and will continue to endeavour in building the movement for the just and genuine settlement and integration of not only Filipino Canadians, but of all racialised and working class peoples who call Canada home.

Advance the struggles of the 99%!
Expose and oppose the neoliberal project!
Break the cyclical pattern of temporary migration!
Advance the movement towards genuine settlement and integration!

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

The National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC) sends our warmest and most militant greetings of congratulations to the Philippine Women Centre of B.C., and its newly-elected Board of Directors at its recently-held Annual General Meeting. For over 20 years of Filipino Canadian women’s organizing, the PWC of B.C. has served as an example and inspiration to thousands of Filipino Canadian women to take great pride in continuing the long history of our struggle and resistance as working-class women of colour in Canada.

The NAPWC salutes the great courage and determination of the new Board of Directors, all your members, and volunteers in your commitment to march forward and continue the pioneering work of the PWC of B.C. for equality, genuine development and women’s liberation. Your fervor in advancing the struggle of our growing community for genuine settlement and integration in Canada is integral and central in our efforts to build a progressive movement for social change – a movement that puts the struggles of marginalized workers, women and youth at the forefront of the working-class struggle in Canada.

As we enter another milestone in the history of Filipino Canadian women’s organizing, our strong resistance against our continuing exploitation and oppression will be marked, yet again, in the history of our community, as we reclaim the revolutionary road towards women’s emancipation.

Sulong kababaihan! Makibaka, huwag matakot!

In Solidarity,
Cecilia Diocson, Executive Director
National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada
(member of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians)

With the Philippines now rising as Toronto’s No. 1 source of immigrants, as recently reported in the National Post’s “Ten ways to nurture ‘the soul of our city,’” the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC) recognizes the significance of this number beyond sheer quantitative measure – that the presence of over 250,000 transnational Filipino Canadians in the heart of Canada’s economic engine has been driven by the full-scale expansion of the neoliberal agenda of globalization. As our entry into Toronto is facilitated by neoliberal labour and immigration policies that stamp and seal our admissibility under the pretext of becoming sources of cheap and disposable labour, our growing community is immediately denied their full participation in Canadian society despite upholding the bare bones of the economy. To get to the heart of “tackling Toronto’s complex quality of life issues” is to genuinely address the growing Filipino Canadian community’s needs of settlement and integration towards their full participation and entitlement as necessary in truly nurturing “the soul of our city.”

It is no mere statistical anomaly or historical happenstance that the Philippines has now become Toronto’s No. 1 source of immigrants. We must acknowledge that the increasing rates of Filipino migration into Canada operate far beyond an individual’s choice to settle in another country. Instead, the massive influx of transnational Filipinos into Toronto must be understood as a concerted effort by Canada’s neoliberal agenda to drive more and more workers out of their countries to circulate the global labour market as a pool of cheap labour.

Just as Canada opens its doors to admit thousands of new immigrants as permanent residents and temporary workers, they are subsequently prevented from genuinely settling and integrating into their new home as they are at once “pigeonholed in jobs as caregivers” and casualized, low-wage service sector jobs. As such, we are hard-hit by the impacts of deskilling as our years of professional training and education are rendered unusable and corroded away by years of repetitive and backbreaking work. If we are to truly settle and integrate into Canadian society, it will not be achieved by performing the dirtiest, dangerous and most difficult jobs that no other Canadians would take, for wages below minimum wage in some cases and under conditions that are akin to modern-day slavery. Whereby the development and full participation of an entire community is impinged upon by their immigration status or by occupational segregation, the possibilities of genuinely “nurturing the soul of the city” cannot be fully realized.

The lure of Toronto as Canada’s top destination for immigrants, often applauded for its multiculturalism and diversity, cannot simply be taken for granted as a marker of world-status as its economic life highly depends on the cyclical importation of cheap labour from the Global South and the continued exploitation of its workers. It is no surprise that this insistence towards temporary migration is occurring alongside the ongoing privatization of public services. The unabated implementation of the Conservative government’s neoliberal agenda will only serve to drive us further away from truly “nurturing the soul of the city” as it continues to marginalize our communities and prevent our full participation and entitlement in Canadian society.

Our contributions to Canadian society extend far beyond our capacities as mere appendages to the economy. As over five decades of struggling for our genuine settlement and integration in Canadian society has demonstrated, there is much more at stake in nurturing Toronto’s true potential than what can be provided by exclusionary immigration policies that operate solely for the sake of global competitiveness. It cannot simply be said that “the world needs Toronto to succeed,” as the article points out, but also that “Toronto needs the world to succeed” as well. For our city and for Canadian society to truly thrive, we must take root in our new home by continuing to strive for our just and genuine settlement and integration.

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

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

Toronto, ON – The growing Filipino Canadian community from across Ontario and beyond will teem eagerly with life as they take great strides towards transforming history and settling and integrating into Canadian society as the Ontario-wide “Counterspin: Building a Movement for Social Change” conference takes place this November 19th and 20th (venue TBA). All are welcome to join the flourishing discussion and contribute towards concrete action in building a movement for social change.

Organized by the member organizations of the Magkaisa Centre under the auspices of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC), this two-day conference will take the necessary steps towards building a movement for social change by placing the struggles of the transnational working-class at its fore. By drawing from the distinct histories and resistance of the Filipino Canadian community’s struggle for genuine settlement and integration, the conference aims to put forth a transformative new paradigm that places the struggle of the working-class at the heart of ending the crisis of neoliberal globalization in Canada.

“Counterspin” will bring the struggle for genuine settlement and integration to new heights since its progression from its beginnings at 2010’s “Counterspin: Towards a just and genuine settlement and integration: link arms and unite for freedom,” held in Montreal. While this conference broke the ground in introducing the progressive Filipino Canadian community’s new path towards social transformation, 2011’s “Counterspin: Deepening our understanding of genuine settlement and integration,” held in Vancouver, provided a further understanding of this emerging new path.

As the Philippines has now soared into the top spot of Toronto’s source of immigrants, the growing Filipino Canadian community continues to enter Canada under restrictive and exclusionary immigration policies that deny them from fully participating in Canadian society besides as sources of cheap and disposable labour. Faced with the community’s intensifying marginalization and social exclusion, “Counterspin” will instead enable the community to take root in their new home and fully participate in Canadian society by building a movement that will advance and make central the class struggle of workers, women and youth.

“Counterspin: Building a Movement for Social Change”
Ontario-wide conference
Organized under the auspices of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC)
Claude T. Bissell Building, Room 205, University of Toronto
Registration is $20.00 (includes meals and conference materials)

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For more information, contact the Conference Secretariat:
Bryan Taguba
(416) 519-2553
pwc-on@magkaisacentre.org
www.magkaisacentre.org
Twitter: #Counterspin3

Register for Counterspin: Building a Movement for Social Change

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

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

Reading maleta stories

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

Visitors view the Kapit Bisig Maletas (Link Arms Suitcases)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Globalization is a complex phenomenon grounded in the flow of capital, mainly from the North to the South, and the flow of labour, mainly in the counter direction. Within the global “South” there is a differential in development, with flows of capital within developing nations, and a flow of labour from the less developed to the more. Globalization is thus marked by an unprecedented migration of labour that is further distinguished from previous historical migrations by its largely temporary character. Migrant labour in the period of globalization is characterized by its total subservience to the needs of capital: its flow, its temporary character, and its conditions of existence are governed by the nation states to purely serve the interests of capital.

While Canada as one of the most developed nations of the global North exports capital both through direct investment abroad and the hiring out of services that can be performed abroad, it also imports labour in the most cost-effective way to work on its fixed capital in the agricultural sector, in construction, and in the service industry. These are temporary foreign workers, whose numbers now surpass the number of regular immigrants, who constitute the most exploited section of the labour force, a second class of labour without the historically earned rights of workers in Canada.

Within South Asia labour migration produces both the lure of prosperity and the overwhelming experience of misery. On the one hand the failure of nation states to provide the basic necessities of life to vast numbers of their people drive them to seek work abroad, attracted by the prospect of good wages that they can remit home for the betterment of their families. On the other hand this binds them to the most oppressive exploitation in the receiving countries, where they are dehumanized and often deprived of health and life.

The conference will explore a common framework within which the various experiences of labour migration in the period of globalization can be brought together. It will focus on the experience of South Asian migrant labour in the specificity of national conditions but attempt to integrate these different experiences into a global understanding.
The proceedings of the conference will be published and will include submissions by scholars and activists unable to attend the conference.

The conference is being organized by Dr. Hari Sharma Foundation for South Asian Advancement and is sponsored by the Morgan Centre for Labour Studies at Simon Fraser University, the Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, SFU, Dean of Arts and Social Sciences, SFU, Institute for the Humanities, SFU, Race, Autobiography, Gender, and Aging Centre (RAGA), University of British Columbia, Canadian Farmworkers’ Union (CFU), and Progressive Intercultural Services Society (PICS), and South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD).

Registration
Pre-registration for the conference is required as seats are limited. The opening plenary is open to people not registered for the conference but requires prior notification to: cbanerjee@telus.net

For registration contact: Chinmoy Banerjee: cbanerjee@telus.net
Registration fee for the conference: $40.00 (includes lunch and refreshments on November 26 and November 27)
Registration for conference and dinner on November 26: $60.00

GLOBALIZATION AND MIGRANT LABOUR CONFERENCE
FOCUS ON SOUTH ASIA

November 25-27, 2011

PROGRAMME

November 25: 6.00 pm Reception

7.00 pm Opening Plenary: Chair Zahid Makhdoom
Room 1900, Fletcher Challenge Theatre

Chinmoy Banerjee: Dr. Hari Sharma and the Hari Sharma Foundation

Gary Teeple: The Morgan Centre for Labour Studies and the Labour Studies Programme at Simon Fraser University

7. 45 pm Screening of El CONTRATO

November 26: 9.30 am Registration

10.00 am Morning Session: Chair Gary Teeple
Room 1700, Labatt Hall

Genevieve LeBaron: Neoliberalism, Migration, and the Changing Contours of Labor Unfreedom

Tania Das Gupta: Precarious workers in the South Asian Community: Race, Gender, Class and Migration Status

Satya Sharma: Where Ethnicity and Class Intersect: The Political Economy of Farm Working in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia

Cecilia Diocson: Resisting the Temporariness of Migrant Labour: Organizing and Educating Migrant Workers in Philippines and Canada

12.00 pm Lunch

November 26: 2.00 pm Afternoon Session: Chair Habiba Zaman
Room 1700, Labatt Hall

Vinod Kumar Adhikary: Issues in Nepali Migration under Globalization

Viola Perera: Rights and Challenges of Sri Lankan Female Overseas Migrants

Hussain Bux Mallah and Haris Gazdar: South- South migration and Citizenship: Ethnic Bengalis in Karachi

Samarajit Jana: Sex-Workers Led Initiatives for Rights and Justice: A Case Study from Kolkata, India
5.30.00 pm Banquet

November 27: 10.00 am Morning Session: Chair Sunera Thobani Room 1600
S Irudaya Rajan: Impact of Global Crisis in the Gulf in South Asian Migration
Mahendra K Lama: Irregular Migration from South Asia in Japan: Nature, Dimensions and Policy Issues
Junaid Rana: (Pakistani Migrant Workers and Post-9/11 Islamophobia)
12.00 pm Lunch

November 27: 1.00 pm Roundtable: Chair Harsha Walia
Charan Gill, Sunera Thobani, Zool Suleman, Raj Chouhan, Adriana Paz, UFCW Canada

3.00 pm Closing Plenary: Chair Harinder Mahil Room 1700, Labatt Hall
Jim Sinclair

Presenters at Globalization and Migrant Labour Conference

Mr. Vinod K Adhikary
Former Joint secretary
Ministry of labour
Govt of Nepal
&
Former Director General
Dept of labour
Govt of Nepal
Kathmandu, Nepal

Dr. Chinmoy Banerjee
President
Dr. Hari Sharma Foundation for South Asian Advancement
Burnaby, BC

Ms Cecilia Diocson
Executive Director
National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada; Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC)
Montreal

Mr. Haris Gazdar
Director and Senior Researcher
Collective for Social Science Research
Karachi, Pakistan

Dr. Tania Das Gupta
Professor, Department of Equity Studies
Cross-appointed to Department of Sociology
York University, Toronto

Dr. Samarjit Jana
Principal, Sonagachi Research and Training Institute (SRTI), Kolkata
Chief Advisor, Durbar Mahial Samanya Committee (DMSC)
Kolkata, India

Dr. Mahendra P Lama
Founding Vice-Chancellor,
Central University of Sikkim, Gangtok
India

Dr. Genevieve LeBaron
Researcher, Liu Institute for Global Issues
The University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC

Mr. Hussain Bux Malha
Research Officer
Collective for Social Science Research
Karachi, Pakistan

Mrs. Viola Perera
Senior Programme officer
Women and Media Collective
Coordinator: Action Network for Migrant Workers.
Colombo, Sri Lanka. .

Dr. Satya P Sharma
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Dept. of Religion and Culture
University of Saskatchewan
Saskatoon

Dr. S Irudaya Rajan
Chair Professor
Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs
Research Unit on International Migration
Centre for Development Studies
Trivandrum, Kerala
India

Dr. Junaid Rana
Associate Professor of Asian American Studies
Affiliated with Dept of Anthropology, Center for the Study of Asia and Middle East
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
USA

Session chairs:

Dr. Gary Teeple
Professor, Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology
Director, Morgan Centre for Labour Studies
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, BC

Dr. Sunera Thobani
Director, Race, Autobiography, Gender, and Aging (RAGA) Centre
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC

Ms Harsha Walia
Activist and writer
Downtown Eastside Women’s Association
Vancouver, BC

Dr. Habiba Zaman
Professor, Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, BC

Plenary Chairs

Mr. Harinder Mahil
Former Chair, BC Human Rights Commission
Vice President, Dr. Hari Sharma Foundation
Vancouver, BC

Mr. Zahid Makhdoom
President, World Sindhi Institute
Sitting Judge, Provincial Court, BC
Director, Dr. Hari Sharma Foundation
Vancouver, BC

Closing Plenary

Mr. Jim Sinclair
President, BC Federation of Labor
Vancouver, BC

Participants at the Roundtable

Mr. Raj Chouhan
MLA, Province of British Columbia
Labour Critic, NDP
Former President, Canadian Farmworkers Union
Burnaby, BC

Mr. Charan Gill
Executive Director
Progressive Intercultural Services Society (PICS)
Canadian Farmworkers’ Union (CFW)
Surrey, BC

Ms. Adriana Paz
Founder and Representative, Justicia/Justice for Migrant Workers, BC
Vancouver. BC

Mr. Zool Suleman
Lawyer
Member of the Justice Committee, City of Vancouver
Vancouver, BC

Dr. Sunera Thobani
Director, RAGA Centre
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, BC

UFCW Canada
UFCW is the largest private sector union in Canada

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Get involved in this exciting project!

We are looking for:

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

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

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

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

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

The weekend of June 18th to 19th marked a monumental point in the history of Filipino Canadian community, as over 60 Filipino Canadians asserted their right to take root and build a home here in Canada. Sponsored by the University of British Columbia’s Liu Institute for Global Issues and in collaboration with the Philippine Studies Series, the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC) made their impact in the West Coast through the weekend conference titled “Counterspin: Taking root and building a home, deepening our understanding of genuine settlement and integration.” As Filipinos have been entering Canada for over 50 years since the 1960s, emergence of a new path towards genuine settlement and integration is both urgent and timely. Counterspin was originally launched in Montreal in May last year and the CPFC was formed as a result of the conference. Counterspin is a historical landmark for Filipino Canadians as it represents a national movement towards the community’s full participation and entitlement.

Five panel presentations with three speakers on each panel were the educational components of Counterspin, which took place during the first day of the conference. The second day was reserved for action-planning to address issues and research that were highlighted on the first day.

Beginning the 1st day of panels, “Creating and nurturing a new path” introduced the history and experience of the Filipino Canadian community as a transnational community, whose struggles are directly shaped by the vagaries of neoliberal globalization. As elaborated by speakers Ninotchka Rosca, Dr. Geraldine Pratt and Emmanuel Sayo, the basic challenges of settlement and integration faced by Filipino Canadians can only be genuinely addressed by creating their own history in their new home. Instead of privileging other people’s struggles, the Filipino Canadian community’s own struggle is now being wrought based on their own experiences to combat the low wage, dead-end and temporary conditions they are relegated to.

The second panel, “The leading force: makers of history,” continued by describing how the present neoliberal system thrives on the blood and sweat of the working class. Arlene Oropel’s sharing of her experiences as a former domestic worker was beyond a mere exposé of issues under the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) but also represented a forward-looking challenge to all workers to demand their full entitlement. Ending their exploitation as workers under the LCP is to call for its scrapping, wherein they can arrive as permanent residents and accredited workers and demand for the creation of universal childcare. Joy Alarcon, founding member of Kabataang Montreal and vice-chairperson of PWC-Quebec, encouraged all workers to look beyond their own issues and forge alliances with other oppressed communities to fully realize the interconnectedness of our struggles for community-building and to take united action as members of the Canadian working class. Bryan Taguba, member of SIKLAB-ON and UKPC/FCYA-ON, boldly spoke of how community organizing empowered him to further look into the conditions of young workers in Canada and to challenge the circular pattern of migration. Aptly demonstrated by the panelists and representatives of various chapters of SIKLAB, workers from the Global South, majority of who are women, have great potential and experience for becoming a leading force in transforming society and making history.

The women’s panel, called “Something else, something fierce: new perspective in our women’s organizing,” featured PWC members Charlene Sayo, Qara Clemente and Krystle Alarcon. Sayo’s presentation challenged young women to cultivate a new culture of sisterhood based on class as is necessary in creating a militant women’s movement. By exposing the links between consumerist and shallow relationships among women as built upon capitalism’s dividing nature, she highlighted how the root causes of young women’s issues can be surmounted by comprehensively addressing the situation of women in the community and in society as a whole. Clemente presented on the new revolutionary road that young women should take in community development and a struggle for genuine equality and liberation. Alarcon expanded on Clemente’s presentation by focusing particularly on the media. She said that youth should take it upon themselves to “counterspin” how the media spins Filipino Canadian issues. “We should no longer be subjects,” she asserted, because of the power of social media such as Twitter and Facebook to spark social movements. With the new perspective illustrated by this panel, the road ahead for all Filipino Canadian women can be an empowered one.

The youth panel, titled “Sharpening our tools for our future,” demonstrated the capacity of Filipino Canadian youth to harness their own tools as liberating mechanisms towards social transformation. Carlo Sayo, Chairperson of UKPC-BC, showed how youth apathy and alienation in relation to consumerist culture was at play during the June 15 Stanley Cup riot in Vancouver. In stark contrast to such actions, the achievements of youth movements around the world, as locally exemplified by UKPC-BC, have instead uncovered the wellspring of transformative action within youth who are asserting their full participation in society. Reuben Sarumugam’s presentation brought the history of UKPC-Ontario’s benchmarks in youth organizing to life by demonstrating how their relentless efforts in community-based research and organizing is committed to making Filipino Canadian youth count in Ontario and beyond. Neil Castro’s presentation ended the panel by challenging all youth to be critical thinkers and doers. Instead of passively accepting their continued isolation and underdevelopment, he calls on all youth to acknowledge their realities as marginalized youth and to create their own homegrown perspectives and forms of resistance, as demonstrated through his experience with UKPC-Kabataang Montreal.

As tantamount to becoming full participants in Canadian society, the last panel on social services and the lack thereof for the Filipino Canadian community began to create a progressive understanding of the myriad possibilities of a self-sufficient and developed community. Ilyan Ferrer, a PhD student in McGill University and member of Kabataang Montreal demonstrated the workings of social services in Canada and its endemic barriers in accessibility, such as lack of awareness, language, and the current system’s inherently individualizing tendency. Shauna Butterwick, a UBC professor in Educational Studies and long-time supporter of the NAPWC, bolstered Ferrer’s presentation by reiterating how neoliberal policy reforms in Canada have made social services more market-driven and restrictive. Cecilia Diocson, Executive Director of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC), put in the last word on the panel and the 1st day’s proceedings by linking the all-around impacts of neoliberal budget cuts and immigration policies on the community’s ability to access social services and their overall awareness in demanding for their full entitlement.

Counterspin delegates then made their way to Simply Delicious Galleria where cultural performances by different members of UKPC, PWC and SIKLAB showed their national solidarity by singing, rapping and performing spoken word pieces. Everyone was cheering and dancing to progressive lyrics and chanted “end the exploitation, march for liberation!” at the end of the show. Some youth members even came up with performances on the spot about transnationalism and economic marginalization, already showing how the conference inspired them. More members have also joined the Kalayaan Centre’s Tinig ng Masa radio show and have been very vocal about the issues they have learnt at Counterspin and continue to advocate for the genuine settlement and integration of Filipino Canadians.

During the last day of the conference, the previous day’s proceedings were put into action as youth and workers gathered into their own sectoral groups to create national action plans that are particular to their situation. Their collective visioning and planning generated concrete ideas for advancing the call for the community’s just and genuine settlement and integration.

With a deeper understanding and a broader vision of the steps ahead in community organizing, the CPFC will continue to pave and lead the path towards the Filipino Canadian community’s just and genuine settlement and integration.

For photos of the conference, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/pwcontario/sets/72157627062745205/

Issued by the Counterspin Conference Secretariat
Vancouver, British Columbia
July 20, 2011

In deepening the understanding of a just and genuine settlement and integration, internationally-acclaimed writer and feminist revolutionary Ninotchka Rosca honours progressive Filipino Canadians with her unwavering support and solidarity as a guest speaker at this historic conference. Rosca, who spoke at the 1st Counterspin conference held in Montreal a year ago, will further elucidate her analysis of the concept of ‘transnationalism’ as pertinent to the current realities and struggles of the transnational Filipino community in Canada and beyond. Smashing imperialism’s dominant narrative of ‘circular migration,’ Rosca will challenge this narrative which reduces the transnational working-class simply as a “moveable feast of reserved labour in accordance with the needs of capital” locked in a state of “permanent impermanence.”

Induced by the neoliberal agenda of globalization’s escalating attacks, the Filipino Canadian community’s conditions are evidently trapped within this narrative. Now Canada’s 3rd largest visible minority group and its largest source of immigrants, Filipinos are systematically streamed through Canadian contractual migration schemes and labour policies such as the Temporary Foreign Worker’s Program (TFWP) and the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP). Such programs not only lock workers in a state of temporariness, uncertainty and permanent impermanence, but also create the conditions for the community’s political, economic and social segregation in Canada. “In the face of our community’s intensifying economic marginalization and socio-political exclusion, understanding the concept of ‘transnationalism’ is crucial towards strengthening our efforts in community-building. At the same time, it is fundamental in advancing our national movement for our just and genuine settlement and integration,” says Arlene Oropel, member of SIKLAB-BC.

A milestone event in the history of Filipino Canadian organizing, this national conference will show the strength, resiliency and commitment of progressive Filipino Canadians in countering imperialism’s dominant narratives and rapacious assaults, which leave the community in a permanent state of poverty and underdevelopment. It will advance the role of progressive Filipino Canadians in countering economic marginalization, systemic racism and social exclusion towards building a truly progressive movement that will relentlessly fight and put the interests of the most oppressed and marginalized in society at the forefront. As Rosca states, “the proletariat has no country…and therefore we must build him/her one.” “Counterspin” will be indicative of the progressive Filipino Canadians’ heightened militancy and continuous struggle to firmly take root and build a home that embodies the collective values and perspectives of the working class.

“Counterspin: Deepening our understanding of genuine settlement and integration”
National conference
Organized under the auspices of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC)
Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia
6476 NW Marine Drive, Vancouver, BC
Registration is $25.00 (includes 2 meals and conference materials)

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For more information or to register, please contact the conference secretariat:
Krystle Alarcon; 778-321-8275; krystle.alarcon@gmail.com
Jon Nieto; 778-384-7378; jonziphone@gmail.com
Arlene Oropel; 778- 317-5265; ajalex12jaylon@gmail.com
Twitter: #Counterspin2
Tumblr: counterspin2.tumblr.com

The weekend conference, taking place from June 18th to 9th at the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia, will particularize the Filipino Canadian community’s issues through the call of genuine recognition as integral members and full partakers in the Canadian “cultural mosaic.” With that aim, sharings and presentations from community organizers, members and researchers will challengingly pose perspectives that expose the interconnectedness of transnationalism and neoliberal globalization to the struggle of community building. Organized by the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC) under the auspices of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC), “Counterspin” seeks to lay down the foundation necessary to transform and reconceptualize dominant traditions of community engagement and to build a progressive movement that focuses on making Filipino Canadians full participants in shaping Canada’s future.

As a continuation of the first “Counterspin” conference held in Montreal from April 30th to May 1st in 2010, the conference will feature internationally acclaimed writer Ninotchka Rosca, academics and community organizers from Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. The 1st day of the conference will include panel speakers alongside revolutionary feminist writer Ninotchka Rosca who will contextualize the obstacles and realities of Filipinos as transnationals who are caught within the bounds of neoliberal globalization. Titled “Creating and nurturing a new path,” the introductory panel will discuss the meaning of the call for the genuine settlement and integration and full participation of the Filipino Canadian community to counter the cycle of “permanent impermanence.”

Other panels from the workers, women, and youth sectors will emphasize that as the 3rd largest visible minority group who has resided here for almost fifty years, it is integral for the Filipino Canadian community to reclaim their history here in Canada and take on the role as purveyors of a distinctly radical and transformative culture.

“The leading force: makers of history” situates the struggle of the working class at the forefront of community empowerment. As women continue to be the most oppressed and exploited in our community, “Something else, something fierce: new perspectives in our women’s organizing” discusses the ongoing challenges of building a strengthened women’s movement that interweaves an analysis of race, class, and gender. “Sharpening our tools for our future” will focus on the key role of the youth in building upon a legacy of resistance. The final panel will look at social services in Canada and the Filipino Canadian experience.

In encouraging community engagement, the 2nd day will be dedicated to creating action plans to raise the involvement of Filipino Canadian youth from identity politics to community building and as future leaders in transforming the community’s ethos. “As Filipino Canadian youth, it is integral that we talk about our experiences here in Canada and take leadership in building an empowered community,” states Krystle Alarcon, member of UKPC/FCYA-BC and PWC-BC.

“Our conditions have changed and it is time for us to tackle the concrete realities of our community. Our full participation can only be genuinely achieved with the realization that our marginalization is directly rooted in systemic processes in immigration and the profit-driven agenda of capitalism,” Alarcon adds. “Counterspin” will pose the challenge of smashing old ideas, advancing the struggle to make the Filipino Canadian community count in Canada’s future, and entrusting a culture of resistance to future generations.

“Counterspin: Deepening our understanding of genuine settlement and integration”
National conference
Organized under the auspices of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC)
Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia
6476 NW Marine Drive, Vancouver, BC
Registration is $25.00 (includes 2 meals and conference materials)

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For more information or to register, please contact the conference secretariat:
Krystle Alarcon; 778-321-8275; krystle.alarcon@gmail.com
Jon Nieto; 778-384-7378; jonziphone@gmail.com
Arlene Oropel; 778- 317-5265; ajalex12jaylon@gmail.com
Twitter: #Counterspin2
Tumblr: counterspin2.tumblr.com

“Counterspin: Taking root and building a home: Deepening our understanding of genuine settlement and integration”
For immediate release
June 3, 2011

Vancouver, B.C. – June 18th and 19th will mark a momentous occasion for the Filipino Canadian community in Vancouver as it hosts “Counterspin: Taking root and building a home. Deepening our understanding of genuine settlement and integration.” This two-day national conference will, once again, heighten the unity of progressive Filipino Canadians to advance the struggle towards the community’s full participation and entitlement in Canada.

To be held at the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia (UBC), this conference will further solidify the call for the community’s just and genuine settlement and integration and will be a declaration of an ongoing commitment to continue a legacy of resistance.

For over 50 years, the Filipino Canadian community has been struggling for a just and genuine settlement and integration. Since Canada opened its immigration doors to people from Third World countries, such as the Philippines, immigration policies like the Live-In Caregiver Program (LCP) and the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP) have systemically pushed the Filipino Canadian community into the margins of Canadian society – politically, economically, socially and culturally.

As Canada intensifies its implementation of neoliberal policies, it is our women, workers and youth who bear the brunt of these oppressive and exploitative policies. The Kalayaan Centre, Kapit Bisig Centre, and Magkaisa Centre have been at the forefront of these struggles. “The Filipino Canadian community, especially the youth, looks forward to a future where they can fully participate, engage and exercise their full entitlement in all aspects of Canadian society,” states Krystle Alarcon, conference organizer and member of the Philippine Women Centre of B.C.

“Counterspin” will focus on some key issues, including: the Filipino Canadian community as a transnational community; history of migration in Canada; community organizing and building a progressive movement; making the youth count; youth and alienation; and arts and culture as a form of empowerment. Speakers will include community organizers representing the workers, women and youth sectors, and academics Ilyan Ferrer of McGill University, Geraldine Pratt and Shauna Butterwick of UBC. Renowned novelist, writer and feminist revolutionary Ninothcka Rosca will be a conference guest speaker.

As we forge unity towards the community’s advancement and development, “Counterspin” national conference will be another milestone in reclaiming their rightful place in a multicultural and multi-ethnic Canada. All participation and involvement in this conference will be a testament of the community’s commitment in overcoming economic marginalization, combating systemic racism and social exclusion, enhancing women’s equality and human rights and making the youth count.

“Counterspin: Taking root and building a home. Deepening our understanding of genuine settlement and integration”
National conference
Organized under the auspices of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC)
Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia
6476 NW Marine Drive, Vancouver, BC
Registration is $25.00 (includes 2 meals and conference materials)

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For more information or to register, please contact the conference secretariat:
Krystle Alarcon; 778-321-8275; krystle.alarcon@gmail.com
Jon Nieto; 778-384-7378; jonziphone@gmail.com
Arlene Oropel; 778- 317-5265; ajalex12jaylon@gmail.com

Toronto, ON – June 2, 2011 – The Philippine Women Centre of Ontario (PWC-ON) offers its support to Vivian de Jesus and Lilliane Namukasa’s struggles as overworked and underpaid workers under the modern-day slavery Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP). PWC-ON and its’ sister organizations under the Magkaisa Centre assert that genuine change can only be brought about by challenging the very foundations that the Live-in Caregiver Program is built on, rather than reforming the inherently oppressive, exploitative and violent employment program.

The two women are suing their former employers and are demanding compensation for years worth of unpaid wages, overtime and holiday pay, and for being wrongfully dismissed.

De Jesus was abruptly laid-off and was given only 20 minutes to pack her belongings after living with and caring for an elderly woman and her two adult children with disabilities for more than 10 years. She worked approximately 132 hours per week for the last four years, overly exceeding the statutory 48-hour workweek, but was not paid according to provincial employment standards. Namukasa, likewise, suffered uncompensated labour and was arbitrarily fired a year ago.

“Despite the changes to the LCP, it is critical for us to understand the program for what it truly is. It systemically facilitates extremely exploitative and oppressive working conditions and circumstances for many women in the program. This leaves many caregivers in a constant state of instability, uncertainty, and danger,” states Cecilia Diocson, Executive Director of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC). “The continuous upsurge of stories such as de Jesus’ and Namukasa’s is a testament of the vicious nature of the LCP as an employment program rather than a sincere and effective immigration program,” adds Diocson.

The experiences of de Jesus and Namukasa illustrate some of the program’s immediate consequences; however, the long-term impacts directly prevent the successful development of the workers, while under the program and beyond. As seen in the Filipino Canadian community from over two decades of community-based research and organizing, the program legislates caregivers and their families to a cycle of poverty, thus economically, socially, and politically segregating an entire community.

As progressive Filipino Canadians, members of the PWC-ON and its’ sister organizations have continually been at the forefront of exposing and opposing the racist and anti-woman Live-in Caregiver Program. While its existence as a modern-day slavery program continues to persist, PWC-ON will continue to demand for its’ scrapping. PWC-ON will unyieldingly stand firm with the demand for the just and genuine settlement, integration, full participation and entitlement of workers under the LCP and the entire Filipino Canadian community.

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