Toronto, Ontario–The celebration draws closer as Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance of Ontario (UKPC/FCYA-ON) organizes its fifth Roots, Rhymes, & Resistance in Toronto. Titled “Celebrating Filipino Women’s Resistance”, this event will highlight the contributions of both the Philippine Women Centre of British Columbia (PWC-BC) and the Philippine Women Centre of Ontario (PWC-ON) in educating, organizing, and mobilizing Filipino Canadian women within the community as both respectively reach their 25th and 15th anniversaries.

Historically, Roots, Rhymes & Resistance has always celebrated the Filipino Canadian community’s culture of resistance. It has been a venue for young local Filipino Canadian artists to express the concerns of the community in Canadian society through music, performances and other artistic expressions. It first started eighteen years ago with the Kalayaan Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia with the organization’s anti-war campaigns. Subsequent concerts followed with different themes that tackled the social issues affecting women, workers, and youth in the community and beyond.

This year’s theme focuses on celebrating Filipino women’s resistance highlighting past achievements and ongoing campaigns organized by PWC such as the scrapping of the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP), now called the Canada’s Caregiver Program (CP), and the call to abolish the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP). PWC has always maintained its position that Canada’s Caregiver Program is state-sanctioned violence against women–as seen through the more than 100,000 Filipino women who have been subjected into domestic work–and continues to create the conditions for abuse, gender inequality, deskilling and disempowerment for Filipino women in Canada.

‘Roots, Rhymes & Resistance: Celebrating Filipino Women’s Resistance’ will be a night-filled with music and live performances that speak to the realities and struggles of Filipino women and the active resistance they wage against all forms of gender-based violence. ‘Roots, Rhymes and Resistance’ will speak volumes to the ongoing progressive Filipino Canadian women’s movement for genuine equality, development and liberation.

Roots, Rhymes and Resistance: Celebrating Filipino Women’s Resistance
Date: Saturday, September 26th , 2015
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: United Steelworkers Hall, 25 Cecil St., Toronto, ON.
Tickets: $10.00 each $15 at the door
Buy your ticket online: http://bit.ly/1JirOCQ

For more information, please contact:
The Magkaisa Centre (416) 519-2553
Email: ukpc-on@magkaisacentre.org
Facebook: UKPC/FCYA-Ontario