January 27, 2009
Today marks the one-year death anniversary of Deeward Ponte, the 15-year old Filipino youth who was stabbed at Gray’s Park in Vancouver, and later died in the hospital. As Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance (FCYA), we extend our sympathy to the Ponte family and pay tribute to the memory of Deeward. As Filipino youth, we are all deeply affected by this tragedy in our community and remain strong in our struggle against systemic racism and for the genuine social justice of all Filipinos.
The Filipino community suffered the loss of two youth in the first half of 2008. In April of 2008, 24 year-old Charle Dalde was killed in Richmond, B.C. The Dalde case further shocked the community when the Richmond RCMP harassed the victim’s family racially profiling Charle’s stabbing as gang-related, a claim later proven false.
Both the cases of Deeward Ponte and Charle Dalde are harsh reminders of the violence, racial profiling and negative stereotypes placed on Filipino youth in Canada. We also remember the violent deaths of 17 year-old Filipino youth such as Jeffrey Reodica who was shot and killed by Toronto police in 2004, Mao Jomar Lanot who was beaten to death outside Sir Charles Tupper school in 2003, and of the 25 Filipino students who faced harassment and physical assaults at Vancouver Technical Secondary School in 1999. Many of these youth were the children of live-in caregivers who face daily systemic challenges and barriers to their full participation and genuine settlement and integration in Canadian society.
Daisy Ponte, mother of Deeward Ponte, in a testimonial given last year expressed sadness, disbelief, anger and frustration that she had lost her son who faced challenges as a newly-arrived Filipino youth in Canada. Daisy Ponte had entered Canada under Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP) in 2001. Because of restrictions of the LCP, Ponte had been separated from her two children for nearly five years before they were reunited in Canada. Deeward’s death is a testimony to the false expectations the LCP offers. The LCP is a clear example of how Canada exploits migrant women as a source of cheap labour.
The Ponte family’s story is not unique. Since the early 1980s, nearly 100,000 workers have come to Canada as live-in caregivers under the LCP and its predecessor the Foreign Domestic Movement. The LCP is a racist and anti-woman program in which mostly Filipino women are brought to Canada to do childcare or eldery care and domestic work in the homes of middle and upper-class Canadians. Ninety-five percent of all those who enter through the LCP are from the Philippines. While many women face exploitation and all forms of abuse under the LCP, we have also documented the long-term negative impacts that the LCP has on the women and their children many of whom are reunited with their mothers as strangers after five years or longer of separation..
We recognize the tragedy of Deeward Ponte’s death as a concrete example of systemic racism embedded in Canadian society. In 13 years of organizing, educating and mobilizing, and conducting social justice work with other progressive Filipino community organizations, we understand that Filipino youth in Canada face multiple barriers that continually push us into the margins of society. The lack of genuine support for proper settlement and integration, has left our youth susceptible to various forms of violence and anti-social activities.
This experience of separation, migration, and family re-unification is very traumatic for our community and takes a toll on our youth. Adding to this trauma is the worsening economic marginalization of the community they belong to.
Yet, Canada continues to exploit the Filipino community as it expands its temporary foreign worker policies modelled after the LCP. The Philippines is now the top source country for Canada for migrants and immigrants.
It is because of the exploitative and abusive nature of the LCP and the work Filipino women endure as ‘modern-day slavery’ and the long-term impacts the program has on our youth that we demand that the racist, anti-woman Live-in Caregiver Program be scrapped so that our families are not torn apart because of forced migration and the need for economic survival. We also demand social justice for our Filipino youth, their families and our community so that these tragic events will not happen again, and that we as the Filipino community can fully participate in the economic, political, social and cultural life of Canada.
Justice for Deeward and other Filipino youth victims of violence and systemic racism!
End Systemic Racism Now!
Scrap the Live-in Caregiver Program!
Social Justice for the Filipino community!
For more information, please contact:
Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada / the Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance
c/o Kalayaan Centre
451 Powell Street, Vancouver, BC V6A 1G7
Telephone: 604.215.1103
Email: ukpc_fcya@kalayaancentre.net
Website: www.kalayaancentre.net