For immediate release
January 3, 2012

Toronto, ON–Members of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians and its member organizations stand in solidarity with First Nations peoples who are taking action and making militant protest as part of the Idle No More Movement. Through mass rallies, blockades, demonstrations, and most notably, an indefinite hunger strike by Chief Theresa Spence of Attawapiskat, this movement declares to the whole of Canada and the world that the First Nations peoples will not remain idle while the Conservative government acts with impunity to violate their human rights by wreaking havoc on their lands and waters.

Initiated by four Aboriginal women and now expanding to thousands of protesters across Canada and the United States, Idle No More began from the ground up in opposition to the recently-passed Omnibus budget Bill C-45, a bill that tramples on indigenous treaty rights. This bill includes altering the Indian Act and the Navigable Waters Act – changes that could ultimately push for the privatization of reserve lands as well as eliminating federal protections on lakes and rivers in Aboriginal territories. This paves the way for natural resource extraction for maximum profit accumulation and in the end, leaves Aboriginal communities with toxic and unliveable environments. Cases of unsafe drinking water, high incidents of cancers and overall impoverished living conditions have been well-documented across Canada especially in areas taken over by oil and mining industries.

As progressive Filipino Canadians, we recognize that these changes are not devoid of a political economic context but are part of Canada’s ongoing neoliberal agenda of globalization. The passing of Bill C-45 by the Conservative government is but one of the many drastic changes being implemented by the government in order to ensure the continued growth of Canada’s capitalist economy – a continuous ‘growth’ being waged at the expense of indigenous land theft, environmental degradation, the active recruitment of cheap and temporary transnational labour, and the exploitation and oppression of all working people in Canada. To put it simply, it is corporate-driven growth for and by the ruling class’ interests and not for people’s genuine needs.

We, Canadians of Filipino descent, see a lot of similarities with the First Nations’ struggles against unjust and undemocratic policies of the Canadian state. Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s recent visit to our ancestral country, the Philippines, was a bold action by the Conservative government to ensure the continuing exploitation of Canadian mining companies to extract Philippine natural resources. It was also to guarantee a steady supply of cheap, temporary and disposable labour for Canada’s economic needs in the years to come. Currently, the Philippines stands as Canada’s top source of temporary foreign workers and live-in caregivers.

The environmental degradation caused by these exploits, perpetuated along with other local and transnational state actors, becomes one of the reasons for our forced migration. It is without a doubt that our very presence in this land is a direct product of ongoing neo-colonialism and Canadian imperialism.

As a people facing similar forms of oppression and exploitation by the Canadian state, we, progressive Filipino Canadians, stand in solidarity with the First Nations peoples in their fight against Bill C-45. We stand united to expose and oppose neoliberal policies that destroy communities and the environment. We stand in solidarity in advancing the struggles for indigenous sovereignty and self-determination.

RESPECT THE FIRST NATIONS’ TREATY RIGHTS!
DOWN WITH THE NEOLIBERAL AGENDA OF GLOBALIZATION!
IDLE NO MORE!

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