Toronto, ON – July 20, 2010 – Armed with the spirit of cultural resistance, more than170 Filipino-Canadian youth, women and workers filled the Arbor Room on the night of July 16 for “Roots, Rhymes and Resistance,” an annual cultural event hosted by the Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance – Ontario (UKPC/FCYA-ON). With this year’s theme, “Panahon Natin, Our Moment! Step Out, Stand Out!” the youth took centre stage to reaffirm their active role in shaping the Filipino-Canadian community’s future in Canada. Showcasing multimedia presentations, song, theatre and dance from individual artists and collectives, these twenty performances depicted and celebrated the history  and the resiliency of a community that strives for their just and genuine settlement and integration in Canada. Filipino-Canadians continue to face worsening conditions as they currently make up the 4th largest visible minority group in Canada. “It is the younger generation that inherits the marginalization of our community – we see this as our youth are pushed out of high schools, remain under/unemployed and experience poverty and racism,” says Alleben Purugganan, a [...]

Dont miss tonights screening of "THE NANNY BUSINESS" documentary on Global TV's 'Currents' at 10pm (est)! The Nanny Business follows Edelyn Pineda who waits to be picked up at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport on a freezing cold night in February. The 27 year old, university educated mother of 3 has spent a grueling three days getting from Hong Kong to Toronto. In her hand she holds a contract to work as a live in caregiver, her work permit and visa. She only has 10 dollars left in her pocket, all that’s left after borrowing money from a loan shark in the Philippines to pay for her flight and thousands of dollars to a Canadian recruitment agency. She waits for 3 hours in the cold, but no one comes to pick her up. Instead of a good job in a family home awaiting her, she ends up in a crowded apartment of other Filipino newcomers. Edelyn’s story is one of the central stories in “The Nanny Business”. Almost 5000 Filipino women arrive in Canada each year with dreams of [...]

National Roots, Rhymes and Resistance Toronto, ON – June 16, 2010 – Once again, Filipino youth, women and workers across Canada are seizing the moment in a resounding call to make Filipino youth count in Canada’s future. The culture of resistance takes centre stage as dynamic Filipino youth spill their talents on a national level at “Roots, Rhymes and Resistance: Panahon Natin, Our Moment! Step Up, Stand Out!” The show will be held at the Arbor Room at the University of Toronto’s Hart House on Friday, July 16, 2010 from 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM. Building off the momentum of Toronto’s first RRR held last December, event goers will be able to see a stronger and more vibrant range of performers from Sinag Bayan Ontario and more. Be prepared to unravel your creative minds as Filipino youth step up to the challenge of redefining Filipino culture through music, theatre, spoken word, dance and multimedia. Throughout history, youth have always been at the forefront of stimulating change within their communities. In recognizing the inherent dynamism of Filipino youth, UKPC/FCYA-ON [...]

Toronto, ON – June 14, 2010 – Once again, Filipino-Canadians are unpacking their stories of migration as the Maleta Project continues its journey into Queen West’s Gallery 1313. As part of the Laidlaw Foundation’s “New Shape” exhibit, running from the 9th to the 20th of June, three pieces from the Maleta Project are being displayed. In a scene where artistry and creativity seems commonplace, Maleta subverts and surprises audiences by depicting art that is collectively produced out of the rich experiences of a community united in resistance. Community members, artists and gallery onlookers will recall the power and the impact contained within the pieces “Cargo,” “Singkil” and “Giant Maleta.” Produced under the theme of “End the Exploitation, March for Liberation,” these pieces were crafted by the hands of the Sinag Bayan Ontario arts collective, and embodied by the lives of the transnational Filipino women striving for better lives in their new home. “As young Filipino artists and community organizers, we see art as an opportunity to convey our community’s culture of resistance to our audiences,” says Alleben Purugganan, [...]

Montreal, QC – April 28, 2010 – Progressive Filipino Canadians await the days that they will, once again, reaffirm the growing unity amongst progressive national organizations of Filipino Canadians workers, women and youth in advancing the struggle for our community’s empowerment and development at the historic conference “Counterspin towards our just and genuine settlement and integration.” In deepening our understanding of the Filipino Canadian community as part of a transnational community, internationally acclaimed writer and long-time women’s rights and human rights advocate Ninotchka Rosca will be part of this historic conference as a guest speaker. Rosca will help set the framework of our struggle as a transnational community in North America. She states that “migration is a life-altering process. Completion is as much a part of the migrant’s journey – completion of their lives, homes, families, communities and their value to society…and to treat it like a job application is really to insult and injure the migrant’s humanity.” Unmasking and challenging the one-dimensional view that migrants and immigrants leave their country simply to “earn a living” regardless of [...]

Second Announcement Montreal, QC – Excitement and anticipation builds as progressive Filipino Canadians prepare for “Counterspin towards a just and genuine settlement and integration” – a national conference that signifies the continuing struggle of the Filipino Canadian community for full participation and entitlement in Canadian society. To be held on April 30, May 1 & 2, 2010 at the Jewish General Hospital Amphitheatre Institute of Community and Family Psychiatry (4333 Cote Sainte Catherine, Montreal), this landmark conference will be a monumental event in the history of the Filipino Canadian community, as we pave the way to cultivate and nurture the new path for genuine settlement and integration. Building on the years of educating, organizing and mobilizing work of the Kapit Bisig Centre in Montreal, the Magkaisa Centre in Toronto and the Kalayaan Centre in Vancouver, progressive Filipino Canadians embrace this new era in our struggle with an affirmation to strengthen its unity towards the Filipino Canadian community’s advancement and development. As we march forward in reclaiming our rightful place in a multicultural and multi-ethnic Canada, we call on [...]