Filipino Canadian youth take the stage tomorrow at the 4th annual “Roots, Rhymes, and Resistance”
Toronto, Ontario – This is a final reminder of the upcoming fundraising concert, “Roots, Rhymes, and Resistance” organized by Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Youth Alliance (UKPC/FCYA). The concert, titled Taking Back Our Future, will be held tomorrow, Saturday, July 13th at the Hart House Music Room, on University of Toronto’s downtown campus. The event will feature performances by: Ace Real, No Class Today, Jewstice League and Alarm Her Majesty, and many more young talented artists. There will also be a raffle draw with various prizes to be won. Doors open at 7:30PM, but please come early as there is limited seating. “Roots, Rhymes and Resistance: Taking Back Our Future” Saturday, July 13 2013, 8:00 PM – 10:00 PM Doors open at 7:30 PM, show starts at 8:00 PM Music Room, 7 Hart House Circle University of Toronto Downtown Campus Tickets $10.00 each (All funds will go towards our upcoming conference “Making the Youth Count in Canada’s Future: The Struggle of Young Workers in the Age of Austerity and Neoliberal Globalization ”) -12- For more information, contact: [...]
Province-wide conference to bring out common resistances of youth and young workers
Fifth announcement July 11, 2013 Toronto, ON—Anticipation continues to build for this summer’s historic one-day youth conference “Making the Youth Count in Canada's Future: The Struggle of Young Workers in the Age of Austerity and Neoliberal Globalization,” set to take place on Saturday, August 3rd at Toronto’s United Steelworkers Hall on 25 Cecil Street. Organized by the Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance of Ontario (UKPC/FCYA-ON), the province-wide conference aims to create resonance amongst all youth and young workers across various communities on their common struggles and as forerunners of genuine social change. Bringing together critical perspectives on the collective struggles and resistances of youth within Canada, the conference will feature panel speakers Fay Faraday, labour and human rights lawyer, Emmanuel Sayo, long-time community organizer with the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians and Reuben Sarumugam, Chairperson of UKPC/FCYA-ON, among others. Emmanuel Sayo will set the context for the day’s conference by speaking on the dynamics and impacts of the recent economic crisis on all working Canadians, particularly on migrants and immigrants as members of the [...]
Make the youth count and register now for the “Making the Youth Count in Canada’s Future” youth conference
Fourth announcement June 26, 2013 Toronto, ON—With the month of August fast approaching, everyone is reminded to register for the upcoming youth conference, “Making the Youth Count in Canada’s Future: The Struggle of Young Workers in the Age of Austerity and Neoliberal Globalization.” The day-long conference will be held at the United Steelworkers Hall in Toronto on August 3rd. All are invited and everyone is welcome to register. Youth in Canada and across the world are confronted with neoliberal globalization’s attacks on their lives and futures, whether in the form of rising unemployment and tuition fees, the implementation of low-wage strategies and cutbacks or the repression of activism and resistance. Youth everywhere are also readily meeting these challenges and are taking part in social movements as a form of resistance. All are invited to take part in this conference. Conference objectives To understand the impacts of the global economic crisis and neoliberal globalization on the youth in Canada. To develop strategies to advance the struggle of the youth against neoliberal globalization. “Making the Youth Count in Canada’s Future: [...]
Youth take back their future as future leaders at annual “Roots, Rhymes and Resistance” concert
For immediate release June 26, 2013 Toronto, ON—The Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance Organization (UKPC-ON) is celebrating their upcoming annual “Roots, Rhymes and Resistance” concert on the 13th day of July this year. The theme for this year is “Taking Back Our Future,” which will focus on the youth and their roles as empowered leaders in our society. The concert is taking place at the University of Toronto’s Hart House Music Room. Doors open at 7:30 PM and show starts 8:00 PM. The theme of “Taking Back our Future” speaks directly to the current generation’s organizing work in educating one another by utilizing the arts and cultural venue to express their struggles as transnational youth within Canada. As UKPC member Patricia Guerrero says, “It is essential to learn and express the issues we face as a community so that we can become involved in making the changes that we need in our society.” As years have gone by, this has been a key thread of each “Roots, Rhymes and Resistance” annual concert and this year [...]
Excitement continues to build for upcoming youth conference, “Making the Youth Count in Canada’s Future”
Third announcement June 21, 2013 Toronto,ON—This summer’s upcoming youth conference “Making the Youth Count in Canada’s Future: The Struggle of Young Workers in the Age of Austerity and Neoliberal Globalization,” organized by the Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance of Ontario (UKPC/FCYA–ON), is set to bring dynamic discussions led by youth organizers from across various communities in Canada, and is scheduled to take place at Toronto’s Steel Workers Hall at 25 Cecil St. on August 3rd. Foregrounding experiences amassed from beyond mainstream media’s split-second exposure of today’s local and global social movements, the conference will bring up the crucial point that youth have the capacity to continue sustaining these movements as long-term commitments for social change. UKPC/FCYA–ON organizers John Nerier and Aila Comilang will be part of the day’s panel speakers along with the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC)’s current Executive Director, Cecilia Diocson. Within the Filipino Canadian community, the Philippine Women Centre (PWC) has provided a strong voice in advocating for the community and specifically for women’s rights, and has been [...]
Honouring the legacy of the late Dr. Henry Morgentaler
June 17, 2013 National Statement Toronto, ON--We, at the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC), celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Henry Morgantaler, whose dedication and commitment in fighting for abortion rights have been a fundamental contribution in women’s historical struggle for basic rights and entitlements here in Canada and throughout the world. His strong will and determination, over the past few decades in pushing to make abortion accessible for women had been and continues to be an inspiration for all of us to continue to be vigilant in upholding reproductive justice as an integral component in achieving genuine women’s equality and liberation. At the core of Dr. Morgentaler’s long years of legal battles between himself and the Canadian state, is the persistent compulsion of the state to systemize and strip women of their fundamental rights to control their own bodies. In essence, Dr. Morgentaler's battle, strengthened by the many women who fought alongside him represented the bigger battle between Canadian women and the Canadian state. His pioneering work towards abortion rights for women in [...]
Youth take back their future in this year’s Roots Rhymes and Resistance
June 6, 2013 For immediate release Toronto, ON—The annual Roots Rhymes and Resistance concert organized by Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance is back for its fourth year here in Toronto. This year’s concert is titled, “Taking Back Our Future” and will, once again, be held at the University of Toronto’s Hart House Music Room. Doors open at 7:30PM and performances will start at 8:00PM. Historically an arts and cultural venue to express youth talents and capacity to build a culture of resistance, this year’s concert will be no different. Impacted by economic restructuring, the future of youth in Canada has been deemed uncertain. But for youth of colour, where the cutbacks to education, employment and general social services impact their communities most, this concert provides a necessary venue for the collective expression of all youth ready to stand up and take back their future. It will be an evening filled with talented acts and a reminder that progressive arts & culture is a much needed fuel when taking our revolutionary paths towards social change. [...]
Youth and young workers prepare to confront current manifestations of globalization’s neoliberal agenda in Canada at upcoming conference
Second announcement May 23, 2013 Toronto, ON—The Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance/Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada–Ontario (UKPC/FCYA-ON) calls on all youth and young workers to take action and participate in the province-wide youth conference, titled "Making the Youth Count in Canada's Future: The Struggle of Young Workers in the Age of Austerity and Neoliberal Globalization." The conference will be held on August 3rd at the United Steelworkers Hall in Toronto. For youth in Canada, the policies that continue to be implemented by the Conservative government as part of the neoliberal agenda of globalization indicate the relentless and worsening attacks on our present conditions and future livelihoods can no longer be denied. As witnessed in mounting student debt and the rise of contractual/"flexible" work, along with the decline of meaningful, full-time positions and job security for all, the impacts of regressive changes to social programming, education and labour need to be addressed more than ever. Recognizing this pressing need is crucial, especially in light of the resultant intensification of the struggles universally faced by youth in Canada's racialized and marginalized [...]
Cosmetic reforms to the Temporary Foreign Workers Program a disservice to all workers in Canada
National statement For immediate release May 13, 2013 Toronto, ON—The Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC) stands firm against the Conservative government’s hypocrisy in masquerading concern for the job security of all workers in Canada through their recent reforms to the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP), despite hitting workers with their prevailing agenda to continue cheapening and contractualizing labour. Packaged as a plan to “ensure Canadians have first chance at available jobs”, the recent reforms are otherwise a form of lip service to the recent public outcry against the controversial Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) case. These changes stand as the Conservative government’s latest attempt to shed themselves of all accountability as the leading brokers and agents of the TFWP and the ongoing unemployment crisis. With the expansion of the TFWP and rising unemployment rates, the Conservative government cannot hide behind such backhanded tactics and must still be held accountable for furthering insecurity and temporariness for all workers in Canada. We must recognize that these reforms are an attempt to legitimize the inherently exploitative and oppressive design of [...]
Wage the working class struggle: Onwards with the fight against neoliberalism
International Workers’ Day National Statement Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians May 3, 2013 The Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC) commemorates International Workers’ Day with renewed vigor and militancy as this past May 1st signified both the historic and deepening need to uphold and advance the struggles of the working class all over the globe. As a day representing the 127th anniversary of the Haymarket Square demonstration in Chicago on May 4th, 1886—which yielded the 8-hour workday standard, the abolition of child labour and safer working conditions—International Workers’ Day also serves as a reminder of the roles workers today must take on in carrying forward the legacy of resistance amidst the intensifying and ruthless assaults of the neoliberal agenda of globalization on the lives of millions of working class people. Instigated by the clout of corporate greed and its ever-growing appetite for profit, neoliberal mechanisms make labour contractual, flexible and disposable, pushing workers’ exploitation and oppression to ever more sophisticated, drastic and much deadlier forms than ever before. It is in this regard that the CPFC calls on [...]
Filipino janitorial and maintenance workers triumph over deportation threat in Halifax
For immediate release May 2, 2013 Toronto, ON—SIKLAB Ontario (Advance and Uphold the Struggles of Filipino Canadian Workers) and the member organizations of the Magkaisa Centre commend the strength and courage of the janitorial and maintenance workers in Halifax, Nova Scotia in speaking out and standing up against the unscrupulous practices held by their employer, Mantolino Property Services, Ltd. This is an achievement that affects not only the workers immediately involved in the case, but the thousands of other workers as well who continue to be underpaid, overworked and highly vulnerable to various forms of exploitation and oppression under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP). As labour becomes more and more flexible, contractual and disposable under neoliberal globalization, this also represents an important victory for all workers in Canada SIKLAB Ontario, together with its sister organizations, extend a message of solidarity to the workers in their triumph to stay in Canada after facing the threat of deportation while their employer remains under investigation. Mantolino has contracts to provide janitorial and cleaning services to 13 municipal buildings, including Halifax [...]