Standing strong in exposing Canada’s neoliberal agenda as Occupy Toronto movement marches on
Toronto, ON – Members of the Magkaisa Centre marched with over 2,000 people at the Occupy Toronto rally on October 15, 2011 as a show of solidarity and support with the Occupy Wall Street protesters in New York. Initiated in that city over a month ago, “Occupy” is now a growing global movement spanning across cities and countries, which speaks directly of the increasing awareness and dissatisfaction of peoples against corporate greed and the current financial crisis felt by billions worldwide. 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 [...]
National women’s organization congratulates the Philippine Women Centre of B.C
To the Philippine Women Centre of B.C., 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 [...]
Nurturing ‘the soul of our city’ by cultivating the path towards our genuine settlement and integration
National Statement For immediate release October 18, 2011 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 [...]
Ontario-wide conference to advance the movement towards genuine settlement and integration
Conference Announcement 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 [...]
“Maleta Stories” illuminate the streets of Toronto at the Nuit Blanche public art event
Toronto, ON – Over 2,500 people gathered at Marissa Largo and the Magkaisa Centre’s groundbreaking “Maleta [Suitcase] Stories” art exhibit for one ecstatic and sleepless night as Toronto’s annual Nuit Blanche public art event lit up the streets. As the first-ever Filipino Canadian community-based project featured in this internationally-renowned art event, “Maleta Stories” set over 2,500 migration stories alight from participants whose own histories unfolded into one collective web of migration. Hosted at the University of Toronto’s Centre for International Experience, the exhibit transformed Toronto into an enduring testament of the Filipino Canadian community’s struggle for genuine settlement and integration. 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 [...]
The Maleta arrives, yet again, at the internationally-renowned Nuit Blanche art exhibit
Toronto, ON – Enthusiasm and excitement within the Filipino Canadian community elevates as their own “Maleta (Suitcase) Stories” resonate freely on October 1st, from sunset-to-sunrise, at the internationally-renowned Nuit Blanche, an annual contemporary art event in Toronto. As the first-ever Filipino Canadian community-based art project to be included in such a prestigious event, "Maleta Stories" will, once again, reclaim art and culture as an avenue to showcase the Filipino Canadian community’s history of migration and its struggle for a just and genuine settlement and integration in Canada. 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 [...]
DisOrientation Film Screening: The Struggle for Genuine Women’s Liberation in Canada
Screening tomorrow at 313 Student Centre, York University from 2:30 - 4:30 PM. See you there!
NAPWC Executive Director to present at globalization and migration conference
Globalization and Migrant Labour Conference Focus on South Asia November 25-November 27 SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC Coast Salish Territory 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 [...]
Progressive Filipino Canadians break ground at Toronto’s Nuit Blanche
Toronto, ON – On October 1, 2011, witness the Filipino Canadian community's histories unfold as the “Maleta” (Suitcase) Art Exhibit arrives at the internationally-renowned Nuit Blanche, a contemporary art event that will “transform the City of Toronto from, sunset-to-sunrise” into a night-long ephemera of artistic expression. 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 [...]
MKC is looking for volunteers for “Maleta Stories, an Independent Project for Scotiabank Nuit Blanche”
Time: Saturday, October 1 at 7:00pm - October 2 at 7:00am Location: The Centre for International Experience, University of Toronto 33 St. George St. (and College) Toronto, ON A collaboration between Marissa Largo and the Magkaisa Centre for Nuit Blanche 2011. With the Centre for International Experience as its backdrop, a projected stop-motion animation of a woman kneeling before a closed suitcase, or maleta, is seen. Slowly, the maleta begins to unzip itself by a force still unknown. What emerges, wrapped in Filipino newspapers, is the embodiment of the histories and narratives of people who have come to this land. Facilitated by the Magkaisa Centre, participants are invited to share their "maleta stories" of how they came to be in Canada on baggage tags, which then become apart of the web-like installation affixed to the British colonial architecture of the Cumberland House, constructing a collective family tree of migration.A gallery of community-based artworks created by members of the Magkaisa Centre resides inside. Get involved in this exciting project! We are looking for: From Oct. 1st, 7pm to Oct. [...]
Taking root and building a home: Filipino Canadians gathered in Vancouver for the 2nd Counterspin conference
Taking root and building a home: Filipino Canadians gathered in Vancouver for the 2nd Counterspin conference Conference Communique July 20, 2011 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 [...]