National Statement
Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC)
July 1st, 2021

Toronto , ON –As progressive Filipino Canadians, we are outraged at the discovery of unmarked mass graves of Indigenous children in residential school sites all over Canada. The recently uncovered sites of more than a thousand graves of Indigenous children in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia, is a painful and gruesome reminder of the deep and widespread violence, racism, and genocide inflicted by white-settler colonialism on First Nations and Indigenous peoples. 

We condemn the Canadian state and the Catholic Church’s historic role in creating the residential school system that facilitated these grave crimes, and their ongoing neglect and inaction to fulfill any meaningful and genuine reconciliation and reparation programs. 

We refuse to celebrate a country built on colonialism and genocide. On July 1st, marked as Canada Day, we choose to pay our respects and mourn for the children who lost their lives in these “schools” and for their families who they were stolen from. We extend our solidarity to the survivors who continue to struggle with their traumas. During this time of great grief, and in the coming weeks as investigations of former residential school sites are currently underway, we need to collectively confront the ongoing dispossession, racism, rape, murder and all other injustices being faced by Indigenous, First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples today now more than ever. 

Although June has been dubbed as “National Indigenous History Month” as well as “Filipino Heritage Month”, these ultimately serve as token gestures for “Canadian diversity” as our communities continue to be pushed to the margins of Canadian society away from accessing adequate education, healthcare, stable and secure employment opportunities, and affordable housing. As a diasporic working-class community forcibly uprooted from our ancestral lands and exploited and marginalized by the same colonial and imperialist structures, we will continue to fight and stand in solidarity with First Nations and Indigenous peoples in Canada. As progressive Filipinos in Canada, we will continue to uphold a culture of resistance and help to build a movement for a socialist future in Canada against all forms of racial, economic, and social injustice towards genuine reconciliation and collective liberation.

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Philippine Women Centre of Ontario
E-mail: pwcontario@yahoo.ca
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Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance – Ontario
E-mail: ukpcon@gmail.com
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SIKLAB Ontario
E-mail: siklab-on@magkaisacentre.org
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