Living Up to the Call of Continuing Our Legacy of Resistance: Palakasin II Communique
Living Up to the Call of Continuing Our Legacy of Resistance Communique for Palakasin II: Palakasin ang Ugnayan, Tuloy ang Laban! Filipino Youth Continue the Legacy of Resistance December 17, 2009 Toronto, ON – On November 28th, 2009, members from Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance of Ontario (UKPC/FCYA–ON) gathered together for a one day conference titled Palakasin II: “Palakasin ang Ugnayan, Tuloy ang Laban! Filipino Youth Continue the Legacy of Resistance.” Over 50 Filipino youth, women, and workers forged their solidarity through panels and workshops that contextualized the community’s need for community-based action and resistance. The first panel focused on our history of migration, along with presentations on Canadian Multiculturalism and the Temporary Foreign Workers Program. The second panel shifted the focus on violence against women and the experience of young Filipinos as workers and children of live-in caregivers. Aside from being a celebration of UKPC/FCYA-ON’s two-year history of community organizing, a resounding call for the community’s just and genuine settlement and integration in Canada also formed the core of the day’s activities. Alleben [...]
Message of Solidarity to the Courageous People of Haiti
Message of solidarity to the courageous people of Haiti National Statement January 20, 2010 January 20, 2010 – The mass and democratic organizations of Filipino Canadian workers, women and youth of Kapit-Bisig Centre, Magkaisa Centre and Kalayaan Centre extend our warmest feelings of solidarity and support to the Haitian people and their families who have been affected by the recent earthquake that devastated the entire nation last January 12, 2010. The 7.0 magnitude earthquake that killed more than 100,000 Haitians, thousands injured and homeless, have left the entire nation grappling with the loss of their loved ones and in picking up the pieces in the process of rebuilding a nation. While we witness the tremendous damages and impacts unravel as a result of this calamity, we also witness the long-term impacts of the devastation brought upon to a nation that has been battered by years of U.S. imperialist domination. The ongoing implementation of the anti-people neo-liberal economic policies perpetuated by the United States continues to batter Haiti, leaving it to be “poorest country in the western hemisphere.” As [...]
Minister Jason Kenney is no Santa Claus to thousands of Filipino live-in caregivers
National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC) SIKLAB Canada (Advance and Uphold the Struggle of Filipino Workers) Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance–Canada (UKPC/FCYA) National Statement December 19, 2009 Progressive Filipino women, workers and youth representing the aggrieved Filipino community maintain that the changes made on the federal government’s live-in caregiver program (LCP) announced by Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) Minister Jason Kenney are yet another tactic to justify the continuation and expansion of modern-day slavery program, such as the LCP, in Canada. The National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC), SIKLAB Canada (Filipino workers organization) and Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance (UKPC/FCYA) criticize these changes, which are purely technical, and strongly contend that the changes was made to make the racist and anti-woman LCP more palatable to Canadians in order to cover-up the systemic weaknesses inherent in immigration policies and to defend the ongoing overhaul of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), such as the passing of Bill C50 and Bill C45. The changes which were announced [...]
Filipino-Canadian youth gather to celebrate the spirit of resistance
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Filipino-Canadian youth gather to celebrate the spirit of resistance Toronto, ON – November 19, 2009 – The excitement builds up as Filipino-Canadian youth from all over Toronto are gathering for a full-day event to mark the 2nd anniversary of the rebuilding of Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance (UKPC/FCYA) – Ontario. To be held at the University of Toronto on November 28th, 2009, Palakasin ang Ugnayan: Tuloy ang Laban! Filipino Youth Continue the Legacy of Resistance aims to celebrate the advances and gains UKPC/FCYA-ON has made over the past two years. At the same time, the event serves as a reiteration of their call for a stronger local and national organizations that advances the struggles of Filipino youth in Canada. On Andres Bonifacio Day in 2007, the first Palakasin was held, entitled Palakasin ang tunay na Uganayan! Strenghtening our Youth, Unite for Freedom! It was a province-wide youth consultation that laid the foundation to re-establish UKPC in Ontario. Following the event, a commitment to building a militant youth organization materialized through various [...]
Filipino community turning up the dial on resistance
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Filipino community turning up the dial on resistance Toronto, ON – November 18, 2009 – Members of Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance – Ontario (UKPC/FCYA-ON) are celebrating the community’s history through a cultural event, with an undeniable theme of resistance. “Roots, Rhymes and Resistance (RRR),” originally showcased in Vancouver for over a decade, will now be introduced in Toronto under the name “Roots, Rhymes and Resistance: Turn Up the Resistance!” Toronto’s first ever RRR will not only be organized by youth and other members of the community, but will also feature talent from the Magkaisa Centre’s community-based organizations. Performers will include members of UKPC/FCYA-ON, the Philippine Women Centre of Ontario (PWC-ON) and SIKLAB-ON. Spoken word artist Dagamuffin and singer Marylou David will also showcase their talent for the night. The show will be held at the Arbor Room at the University of Toronto’s Hart House on December 12, 2009 from 7:30 PM - 9:30 PM. Far from your average tinikling and tulaan, RRR will celebrate the Filipino culture of resistance and [...]
Our youth mourn the loss of Christian Derro
Toronto, ON – November 9, 2009 – Members of Ugnayan ng Kabataan ng Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance–Ontario (UKPC/FCYA-ON) are mourning the loss of Christian Derro, a young member of our community who was recently lost to gun violence. Christian, who was only 19 years of age, sadly passed away on Thanksgiving weekend at a shooting incident in the Jameson area of Parkdale. We recognize that although Christian’s early death may have been avoidable, such stories of violence and death as experienced by Filipino-Canadian youth are not new happenings within the community. Circumstances such as these remind us of Jeffrey Reodica, Mao Jomar Lanot and Charle Dalde, to name a few. We remember their names not as part of news reports and headlines gone by, but as Filipino-Canadian youth whose lives speak of the experiences of many others within the community. We are with the Derro family in mourning for the loss of Christian. Our community has been experiencing different forms of youth violence, and we do not wish for this trend to continue. Violence, whether from [...]
The youth voice the community’s need for a Poverty-Free Ontario
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Filipino-Canadian youth voice the community’s need for a Poverty-Free Ontario Toronto, ON – November 5, 2009 – On this national Day of Action, Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance–Ontario stands in solidarity with student and community groups as we struggle for accessible education and a Poverty-Free Ontario. We are united with various groups in the recognition that the lack of accessible education is only one aspect of a larger systemic problem. Poverty in Ontario affects us all, as systemic barriers withhold us from accessing adequate social services such as childcare, housing, job training and proper wages. We have continually witnessed tuition fees increasing with each passing year, as more and more students are no longer able to afford a full-time education, much less provide for their basic necessities. Ontario now has the highest tuition fees in Canada, fees that are increasing up to 8 percent each year. We are affected by education that is becoming increasingly exclusive, one that presents an idealized vision of the education system, while preventing the participation of [...]
The youth urgently call to stop street violence in Côte-des-Neiges
Kabataang Montreal Over the past three weeks, incidents of street violence involving Filipino adolescents, and alleged members of the South Asian community have increased in the Côte-des-Neiges area. According to reports received by Kabataang Montreal (Filipino youth of Montreal), several Filipino youth have been involved in fights and were hospitalized as a result. In response to the rise in violence, Kabataang Montreal will be holding a press conference on Wednesday, September 23, 2009 at 4900 Fulton at 10h00 to call for an end to this pressing and urgent matter. “We are deeply concerned with how frequent and severe these cases have become", says Neil Castro, Secretary-General of KM, "We will not allow this situation to escalate to the point where more people get hurt. We need to talk about this issue immediately”. The Filipino youth hope to join forces with leaders of the South Asian community to address the issues of systemic racism facing the youth of both communities. With the growing influx of immigrant communities, Côte-des-Neiges has become a densely populated area in Montreal where many citizens [...]
PWC’s Young Women’s Collective launches first community-based women’s studies program
Philippine Women Centre of Ontario Press release PWC’s Young Women’s Collective launches first community-based women’s studies program For immediate release: June 17, 2009 June 17, 2009 (Toronto, ON) – The Philippine Women Centre of Ontario (PWC-ON), along with its newly formed Young Women’s Collective, is launching “Towards Filipino Women’s Liberation: a community-based Filipino women’s studies program.” This program, which will consist of ten three-hour sessions, marks the first ever community-based Filipino women’s studies program in PWC-ON’s history. Modeled after the Philippine Women Centre of BC’s own community-based Filipino women’s studies program, these courses will examine the root causes of Filipino women’s migration through the study of political, social and economic forces – both historical and contemporary – that frame Filipino women’s experience. As Filipino women comprise over 70 percent of Filipino migrants and immigrants in Canada, the need for understanding the role of Filipino women in the community’s struggle for settlement and integration becomes more pressing and vital. The increasing feminization of labour and migration is especially evident in the Live-in Caregiver Program, a program that is comprised [...]