Community Forum: “Canada’s Shift in Immigration Policy: Bad News for Immigrants and Temporary Foreign Workers”

CANADA’S SHIFT IN IMMIGRATION POLICY:
BAD NEWS FOR IMMIGRANTS AND TEMPORARY FOREIGN WORKERS

Presented by Community Alliance for Social Justice (CASJ)
and Filipino Migrant Workers’ Movement (FMWM-Migrante)

Sunday, April 5, 2009
Carr Hall @ St. Michael’s College
University of Toronto
100 St. Joseph Street, Toronto (map)
[1st Floor - Fr. Robert Madden Hall]

Resource Speaker:
SALIMAH VALIANI
Researcher, Activist, Writer
Doctoral Candidate at Carleton University

The speaker will discuss the findings in her February 2009 report,
“The Shift in Canadian Immigration Policy
and Unheeded Lessons of the Live-in Caregiver Program”.

From the report abstract:
“This report elaborates the shift in immigration policy which began unfolding in Canada from the 2006 expansion of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, culminating in June 2008, with the amendment of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. It shows how this shift has been modeled on some of the weakest elements of the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP)… Judging from the pro-employer reorientation of Canada’s immigration system, federal and provincial governments have not learnt from testimonies presented by feminist advocates over the past 20 years.” (Full report)

A panel of reactors from various community organizations is available during Q&A portion.

For more information:
Ben Corpuz at 416.886.8921
Hermie Garcia at 416.461.8694
Jonathan Canchela at 647.833.1023

http://casj.wordpress.com
http://migrante.ca

* * *

Transit directions:

• From Bay subway station, take #9 Bay TTC bus going south. Get off at St. Joseph Street and walk west/right.
• From Museum subway station, walk south and turn east/left at St. Joseph Street.

CASJ Annual General Meeting 2008

TO ALL CASJ MEMBERS, SUPPORTERS & FRIENDS

You are cordially invited to the General Assembly and Election of the Board of Directors of the Community Alliance for Social Justice.

DECEMBER 14, 2008 (SUNDAY)
12:00 – 5:00 pm
North York Civic Centre, Committee Room#3
5100 Yonge Street, Toronto
Nearest Major Intersection: Princess Ave. & Yonge St.
Parking are available at the building and in the side streets

* * * * *
PROGRAM

12 noon — Lunch
1:00 p.m. — Program starts

1. Welcome remarks from the Chairperson, Ben Corpuz
2. Report from the President, Hermie Garcia
3. Brief summary (10 minutes) of the study about the non-access to trades and professions of Filipinos in Toronto, Dr. Philip Kelly of York University
4. Election for 11 positions in the Board of Directors
5. Ideas, suggestions, observations from the body about issues for the CASJ program of action for the next two years.
6. Brief presentation (15 minutes) by Avvy Go and  Michael Kerr from Colour of Poverty

Cultural numbers will be interspersed between some of these items.

* * * * *

Following are some of the actions/activities/accomplishments of CASJ in the past two years:

1. The Chief of Toronto Pollice Services Board, Bill Blair, reported to the Toronto Police Services Board that he would implement five of the seven Jury Recommendations in the Inquest into the fatal police shooting of Jeffrey Reodica. A budget of $439,000 was earmarked to implement these recommendations. Note: CASJ, through its two legal counsels, succeeded in having its recommendations integrated in at least five of the 7 Jury Recommendations.

2. Some of CASJ’s recommendations were considered in the Ontario Parliament committee discussions in preparation for the drafting of  Bill 124 about assisting foreign trained professionals access regulated professions in Ontario.

3. The CASJ position paper on the Live-In Caregiver Program was directly submitted to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the federal Immigration Minister and the provincial Immigration Minister, and to Liberal leader Stephan Dion. CASJ leaders also brought up these LCP demands with these leaders whenever and wherever possible.

4. Various workshops, training sessions and discussions were held with current and past live-in caregivers in the GTA to gather information about their work and living conditions and their demands.

5. A CASJ collaborative study with Dr. Philip Kelly of York University has been concluded. It’s based on the responses of about 400 Filipino professionals and trades people and on the focus groups conducted in a span of months. It’s about the access or non-access to trades and professions in Ontario.

Please invite others who are willing to become members of CASJ.

R.S.V.P. & FOR INFORMATION
Ben Corpuz:  (416) 690-2116, bcorpuz103@rogers.com or
Hermie Garcia:  (416) 461-8694 / 500-8694, hermiegarcia4@gmail.com

CASJ paper goes the round of universities

Reposted from the Philippine Reporter: http://www.philippinereporter.com/2008/11/17/casj-paper-goes-the-round-of-universities/

November 17, 2008

RESEARCH studies of Community Alliance for Social Justice (CASJ) are presented by Mila Astorga-Garcia, CASJ research director, to York University graduate students on Oct. 27, 2008.

TORONTO – Research studies of the Community Alliance for Social Justice (CASJ) have been featured as models of successful research in Toronto’s academic circles.

In the past three years, CASJ has been invited by academic and community groups to discuss its research projects in conferences, seminars, symposia and university graduate course classes.

Recently, CASJ’s research director Mila Astorga-Garcia was asked to share CASJ’s research methods and findings at a graduate studies course in York University, specifically on how successful research can be conducted as an effective academic-community collaboration that builds the research capacity of both parties.

In a panel presentation, Building Bridges Across Sectors: Challenges and Benefits of Community-Academic Research Partnerships, which featured two other groups of panel presentors, Garcia discussed three research projects CASJ has conducted around the organizations’ three priorities: youth, policing and community safety; access to trades and professions; and the live-in-caregiver program. The event was sponsored by The Centre for Feminist Research and the Graduate Program in Women’s Studies, York University, on Oct. 27, 2008, and announced in the CERIS (Ontario-Metropolis) network.

The event also featured research by the Access Alliance Multicultural Health; and research by Dr. Nancy Mandell, Fiona Whittington-Walsh and Katharine King of York U.

CASJ’s studies include “The Road to Empowerment in the Filipino Community: From Crisis to Community Capacity Building,” which documents the family and community’s struggle for justice in the fatal shooting of Jeffrey Reodica by a Toronto police officer; the labour market issues of Filipinos both in the regulated trades and professions, and in unregulated work; and the live-in-caregiver program as it impacts on the lives of caregivers.

The first research was published by CERIS as part of its Working Paper Series (No. 54) and is now used in academic, community and policy circles as reference in subjects related to community capacity building, community crisis response, community engagement, and policy advocacy.

The paper has been one of the references used by lawyers representing CASJ during the Ontario Coroner’s Inquest on Reodica’s death, and has been submitted to the Toronto Police Services Board Chair Alok Mukherjee. The campaign for justice, documented in the report, had resulted in the Coroner’s inquest jury’s seven recommendations, which Toronto Police Service Chief Bill Blair had announced the Service would implement starting 2007.

The second research, on labour market issues, is a collaboration with Dr. Philip Kelly of the Department of Geography, York University. It includes a survey and a series of focus groups coordinated by Rowena J. Esguerra. Initial results were presented in a federal hearing on the issue of access to trades and professions, along with other presentations by other organizations.

The third, which involved a series of focus groups among live-in-caregivers, was coordinated by Pura Velasco, member of the CASJ Board. The resulting document, titled “Respect and Dignity for Caregivers,” was submitted as a policy paper to an Ontario MPP, and a federal MP, as well as to visiting opposition party list members of the Philippine Congress. It has also been used for education and mobilization around the LCP issues, in particular following the campaign for justice for Jocelyn Dulnuan, the live-in-caregiver murdered at her employer’s residence; and the Juana Tejada case, involving a community successful campaign to allow Tejada permanent resident status, after being denied initially due to her cancer.

CASJ has been invited to present its research in previous other academic events: at the 10th International Metropolis Conference, October 2006,Toronto; at a workshop discussion of current research on the Filipino community in Canada, and some aspects of Philippine life and culture, March 31, 2006, sponsored by the Community/University Knowledge Alliance Program of the Women and Gender Studies Institute, and by the Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto; and at a symposium panel in the Community-Oriented Research: Opportunities and Challenges-Relationship plenary, during OCASI’s 30th Anniversary symposium, Settlement Without Borders, held June 26, 2008, at Ryerson Universitiy, on the subject of relationship building and community engagement.

CASJ’s research, has been described as “living” and meaningful, in that it involves grassroots community participation by the very people affected by the issues, and its results are used toward making policy changes. And as one graduate student had put it following the York University presentation, after confiding to Garcia that she had thought all along that research was all about lonely field work and shuffling papers, she said: “I didn’t know research could be so exciting!”

Justice and Compassion for Juana Tejada

Statement of Community Alliance for Social Justice (CASJ)
and Coalition for the Protection of Caregivers’ Rights (CPCR)

The Community Alliance for Social Justice (CASJ) and the Coalition for the Protection of Caregivers’ Rights (CPCR) appreciate the extension given by Citizenship and Immigration Canada to Juana Tejada and her husband’s Temporary Work Permit (TWP) until December 2008. Juana and her husband are extremely grateful for the extension of their visas. But, given Juana’s dire medical condition, we find it unconscionable that the federal government continues to refuse to give her permanent residency status based on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. Not having permanent residency status disqualifies Juana from accessing medical treatment in Canada.

Juana, like all foreign live-in caregivers, had undergone rigorous medical and physical examination by a physician certified by the Canadian government overseas, one of the requirements to get into the Live-In Caregiver Program (LCP). When she arrived in Canada in 2003 to work under the LCP, she did not have cancer. She, in fact, provided care to a set of twins. She completed the LCP’s 24 month live-in requirement within the prescribed period of 3 years. Unfortunately, it was during the medical examination required for her permanent residency status that she was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Much research and literature on caregiving have shown that it is the most demanding and stressful work — paid or not. It has been documented many times that care providers would end up having compromised their health, particularly if they don’t have the necessary social and institutional support systems.

It should not come as a surprise that the number of live-in caregivers afflicted with mental and life-threatening illnesses continues to grow. We don’t keep tab of how many caregivers have been sent home due to cancer, extreme mental and other medical illnesses. Caregiving is a woman’s job. But if done by a poor and racialized caregiver, no matter how important the work is, it is invisible and devalued in our society.

Juana started her justice campaign on June 11, 2008,which is about the same time that the Ontario government launch its Safe at Work Ontario Strategic Plan . It is ironic that there, Labour Minister Brad Duguid, was quoted as saying that, “the McGuinty government and its workplace partners are committed to eliminating all workplace injuries. Workers have a right to come home each day to their families, safe and sound.”

Do foreign live-in caregivers tied to specific employers have the right that the Honorable Minister Duguid was talking about? (They are made to live in their employers’ homes and their families are overseas and not allowed to live with them in Canada.) Are the basic employment, occupational health and safety standards being monitored where caregivers live and work? (We still have to see the caregivers’ workplace which is their employers’ homes, monitored by the provincial labour ministry.)

We are not saying that all caregivers have abusive employers, but we all know that the LCP requirements set the context for the caregivers to work and live in conditions that are considered unsafe, unhealthy, exploitative and fatal. And if you add to the mix, the neglect to the caregivers’ rights and welfare by labor-sending and –receiving governments, you have a recipe for precarious and disastrous job situations for caregivers.

Elenita Pailanan, Elisa Elumbra, Acier Gomes, Elenora Carag are just some of the many caregivers, who went home to die, to give birth to their children, and to face the difficult life of having disability as damaged caregivers.

At the moment, Juana is not the only caregiver who needs medical treatment and social service support. There are other caregivers who are ill and needing care and support. We salute them for their courage to continue living, working a little bit here and there, despite the lack of government assistance; despite being derided by others as causing excessive demands on Canadian health care and social services. We should talk about them, shed light on their struggles so we can learn more about how they cope with life with grace and dignity.

These caregivers are supported by fellow caregivers who are struggling as newcomers with financial and settlement concerns, and yet their compassion and generosity shine. They are not afraid to share whatever little material things they have.

Certainly, we salute Juana’s courage for coming out with her battle against cancer and her fight against regressive and unfair government policies and its regulations. Her struggle highlights the plight of other caregivers who are in similar situations.

Every year, almost 7, 000 live-in caregivers enter Canada under the LCP. 76.5% of them are of Filipino heritage. And when you look at the number and add up how much care-giving dollars the caregivers have contributed to the nation building of Canada and to their home countries, Juana and the community of caregivers are our heroes. They are not asking for preferential treatment. They are asking for fairness and respect for the contribution they have paid to our society many times over.

All of us know that the governments’ actions do not reflect the true Canadian spirit. Deporting a dying caregiver back to the Third World, instead of providing her with the medical care afforded to Canadian residents, is callous and unjust. Canadians have reacted with outrage, and justifiably so. Therefore, we should unite and embrace Juana’s struggle as she fights for her life in Canada.

We ask the federal and provincial governments to respond to Juana’s and our community’s demand that she get her permanent residency soon so that she and her husband can remain in Canada. We ask the Ontario government to allow Juana to receive treatment in Canada, covered by OHIP.

Generosity, kindness and compassion have long been treasured Canadian values. The Canadian and the Ontario governments should not lose sight of these facts in its treatment of Juana Tejada, and other caregivers who are in similar struggles for a dignified life, especially in those times when they are most vulnerable.

Justice for Juana Tejada! Justice for all Caregivers!

Community Alliance for Social Justice (CASJ)
A coalition of 27 organizations and a network of 200 individuals

Coalition for the Protection of Caregivers’ Rights (CPCR)
Member organizations:
CASJ
Migrante Ontario
Jocelyn Dulnuan Support Committee (JDSC)

Contact person: Pura Velasco (416-361-6319), pura_velasco@hotmail.com

*Above photo taken from The Philippine Reporter: http://www.philreporter.com/Issue-06-16-30-08/Justice-compassion.htm

Leadership and LCP Workshop

A message from Hermie Garcia, President of Community Alliance for Social Justice (CASJ) and Publisher of the Philippine Reporter.

To CASJ’s members, friends and supporters, and to interested community leaders and members:

CASJ has put up a very important workshop to train community leaders in lobbying and advocacy work and also to discuss proposed changes in the Live-In Caregiver Program.

This is one workshop you can’t afford to miss. Our trainer and resource person is very competent in this field. There is no fee to attend although CASJ is using some of its resources and funds to make this possible to initiate an educational program for the community to advocate for its interests in Canada.

I am personally inviting you to attend “A Community Leaders’ Training Workshop” organized by CASJ, on Sunday, Jan. 20, 2008 at OPSEU (31 Wellesley St. East, east of Wellesley subway) Toronto, 12 noon to 5 p.m. (lunch will be served free). See attached flyer.

The topics are:
1. Proposed changes to the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP)
2. Training in lobbying and advocacy work.

Our trainer is Arnold Minors, organization effectiveness consultant and anti-racism educator.  Following is his background information from the website Racism, Violence and Health Project:

—————-
Arnold Minors was born in Bermuda and immigrated to Canada in 1964. He has a B.Sc. from McGill University and an M.B.A. from Queen’s University. Arnold is Co-Coordinating Associate of Arnold Minors and Associates, an organization effectiveness consulting firm formed in 1984 to provide consulting, training and mediation services, principally to public sector organizations.

Arnold is Secretary of the Board of Trustees of the Organization Development Network (ODN), a U.S.-based organization of 4,000 consulting professionals and academics. Arnold is the first Canadian elected to the ODN. He was also president of the Ontario Association for Family Mediation.

Arnold’s volunteer work has included membership on the boards of Chinese Information and Community Services and Oolagen, a children’s mental health centre. He is the first person of African heritage appointed to the Toronto Board of Health, and chaired its accreditation committee.

He is a founding Director and a past Chair of the Board of the African Canadian Legal Clinic. He was appointed by the Ontario Provincial Government to be a Commissioner on the seven-member Metropolitan Toronto Police Services Board and served from 1993 to 1996.

He is immediate past chair of Across Boundaries, a mental health centre for people of color and a former vice president of Central Neighbourhood House.

———–

Important: If you are attending, please register or confirm by calling any of our contact persons in the flyer or email casj_canada@yahoo.ca by Friday, Jan. 19, 2008.  We need to know for space and food considerations.

Thank you very much.

Hermie Garcia
President

Tribute to Jocelyn Dulnuan

A Filipino Domestic Worker Killed in her Employer’s Residence on Mississauga Road

Luz del Rosario, Trustee for Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board and Kalayaan Cultural Community Centre Board of Directors in collaboration with the Jocelyn Dulnuan Support Committee (JDSC), and Community Alliance for Social Justice (CASJ) invite you to join us in remembering Jocelyn and all migrant Filipinos who were victims of violence. As a community, let us pray that their souls rest in peace and let us continue our commitment to demand for justice.

WHEN: Saturday, December 1st, 2007 at 1 p.m.
WHERE: Kalayaan Cultural Community Centre
5225 Orbitor Drive , Unit 3
Mississauga , Ontario
(northeast corner of Matheson Blvd and Orbitor Drive )

We will hold an Ecumenical Celebration, then we will host a brief press conference from the Jocelyn Dulnuan Support Committee and MPP Cheri DiNovo. and MP Peggy Nash who is preparing a private member’s bill in support of the Live-In Caregivers.

We invite you to join us to show unity of the Filipino community in calling for justice and equity. For more information, please call Luz del Rosario at 905-542-8747.

Comfort Woman Testimonial

CASJ invites you to a

Testimonial Night
With “Comfort Woman” Lola Fedencia David, 80 years old

Who came all the way from the Philippines to tell her story to Filipinos and Canadians about the horrendous sufferings she experienced in the hands of the Japanese military during World War II.

Please join us to congratulate the success of her efforts and those of three other visiting “comfort women” from China, Korea and The Netherlands: the   motion asking for formal apology from the Japanese government to all victims of sexual slavery imposed by the Japanese Imperial Army during WWII in Asia was passed UNANIMOUSLY in the Canadian House of Commons on Nov 28, 2007. (Campaign was organized by Toronto ALPHA.)

LET’S SHOW OUR APPRECIATION FOR HER COURAGE IN FIGHTING FOR JUSTICE!

WHEN:     Sunday, December 2, 2007, 6:30 p.m.
WHERE:    Reception Hall, May Robinson Seniors Apartments
20 West Lodge Ave. (Queen St. W./Lansdowne)
(Light snacks will be served.)

The book of Nelia Sancho, “Justice with Healing: An Anthology of Narratives of the Lola Kampanyera Survivors of WW II Japanese Military Sexual Slavery in the Philippines” will be launched on the same evening. Copies will be available for sale.

Above photo:  Lola Fedencia, speaking at a solidarity reception for women in Tokyo, Japan in 1998.  Taken from Lolas Kampanyera website, http://lolaskampanyera.blogspot.com/2008/11/lola-fedencia-david.html.

Day of Remembrance – An Ecumenical Celebration

The Jocelyn Dulnuan Support Committee Invites you to a

DAY OF REMEMBRANCE
An Ecumenical Celebration

This All Souls Day Join Us in remembering Jocelyn and all migrant
Filipinos who were victims of violence.

As a community let us pray that their souls rest in peace and let us
continue our commitment to demand for justice.

WHEN: Sunday, November 4^th 2007 at 4PM
WHERE: OPSEU Hall, 31 Wellesley St. East (across Wellesley Subway)

For info: 647-205-5908; 416-472-0320; Email: mogado@sympatico.ca

JOCELYN DULNUAN SUPPORT COMMITTEE:
MIGRANTE-Ontario, Philippine Independence Day Council (PIDC), Community Alliance for Social Justice (CASJ), Ifugao Association of Canada, BIBAK, Filipino-Canadian Association of Vaughan, Markham Federation of Filipino Canadians, Fr. Ariel Dumaran (San Lorenzo Ruiz Parish), Asosacion
Negrense, Philippine Network for Justice and Peace, Philippine Press Club of Ontario, Santaguinian Association of Ontario

Jocelyn Dulnuan and the Filipino Community Cannot Rest Until There is Justice

Jocelyn Dulnuan Support Committee
October 13, 2007

Jocelyn Dulnuan, 27 years old, of Namulditan, Hingyon, Ifugao, the Philippines was found dead on Oct. 1, 2007 in the house located at 2450 Doulton Place, Mississauga where she worked as a live-in caregiver. Jocelyn had arrived in Canada last November through the Live-in Caregiver Program of the Canadian Government. Peel regional police are investigating her death and treating it as a murder case.

Twelve days have already passed since the discovery of her body. Press reports as of today are conflicting over whether the police have already finished their investigation. The police for its part have been very tight-lipped about the case. We hope this has only been so as not to jeopardise the investigation.

Jocelyn Dulnuan’s murder raises important issues of public safety, equality and justice for the Filipino community. Given the recent problems regarding the treatment of Filipinos by certain police departments in certain jurisdictions in Canada, the fear exists in the minds of many in the Filipino community that Dulnuan’s murder may not get the serious and prompt treatment it requires. We need to know that the police is taking this case seriously and not doing a slipshod job because Jocelyn is a Filipino, and a migrant worker.

Filipino migrant workers are a significant part of our community of 100 thousand plus in the greater Toronto area and contribute greatly directly to the Canadian economy through their work, the products they buy, and the taxes they pay without availing of Canadian public services. Indirectly as well, the work of Filipino migrant workers enables Canadians themselves to contribute greater to the economy. Filipinos, and especially Filipino migrant workers deserve equal rights, safety and justice.

The proper institution to ensure that justice is pursued and the muderer(s) of Jocelyn punished is the Philippine consulate. It is the role of the Philippine consulate to protect the rights of Filipinos in Toronto and surrounding regions. At the very minimum the Philippine consulate has the duty both to pull every diplomatic lever it can to ensure that justice is thoroughly pursued by the local Canadian authorities while keeping the Filipino community properly informed of its efforts. We note that Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Claro Cristobal said that Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo has instructed Alejandro Mosquera “to provide full cooperation for bringing anyone responsible for the crime to justice….” Given the sorry history with other cases of Filipino migrants that have come to grief and the initial response of the local consulate and labour attaché to our approach for help, we can only hope that these instructions are not mere public relations exercises. If any harm comes to a Filipino abroad, will the consulate just leave that person behind and hush matters?

Jocelyn Dulnuan would be alive now if the Philippine government had been able to provide the employment back home sorely sought after by so many Filipinos rather than relying on sending people abroad for remittances. We hope that Jocelyn is not a sacrifice to this policy of exporting Filipino workers.

The Jocelyn Dulnuan Support Committee is composed the following Migrante-Ontario organizations: Damayan Migrant Resource and Education Centre, Philippine Advocacy Through Arts in Canada (PATAC), Filipino Migrant Workers’ Movement, Migrante Ontario Youth, and United Filipinos for Nationalism and Democracy (UFiND); the following organizations: Asosacion Negrense,  AWARE/Gabay, Community Alliance for Social Justice (CASJ), Ifugao Association, Philippine Independence Day Council (PIDC), Philippine Network for Justice and Peace, and the Santaginian Association of Ontario; Fr. Ariel Dumaran of San Lorenzo Ruiz Parish and members of Jocelyn Dulnuan’s extended family and friends.

FOR REFERENCE: Maria Sol Pajadura. Cell: 647-448-7030.

CASJ’s Tribute to Kababayan Community Centre on Its 30th Year

By Edwin C. Mercurio
Chairperson – Community Alliance for Social Justice

I’m very pleased to be here with you tonight to celebrate the work and achievements of the Kababayan Community Centre.

As Chairperson of the Community Alliance for Social Justice,  I wish to congratulate the officials, and board Members of the Kababayan Community Centre for their long and outstanding work for our community and the Canadian community as a whole. CASJ’s alliance building and advocacy achievements have been made possible because of allied community organizations such as the Kababayan Community Centre.

Kababayan Community Centre are made upof people who have served and built a strong community foundation for the past 30 years  years. To them were added the first immigrants: the Tagalogs, the Ilonggos, the Ilocanos, the Cebuanos, the Warays, the Cavitenos and many more. Now, our Kababayans have come from far and wide.

Today, with the advent of various compatriots from several regions of the Philippines come new sorts of challenges. Among these are the problems confronting new immigrants and citizens, the live-in caregiver program participants, the youths and seniors, social justice, access to trades and professions, equity and human rights issues. Despite these difficult tasks Kababayan Community Centre with the support, enthusiasm and efforts of its officers, members and allied organizations will persevere in their community service, will continue to grow, prosper and empower our community.

As the number of  population born outside Canada continually grows as high as 50% in major Canadian cities like Toronto, there is a growing challenge for the Filipino-Canadian community to seize every opportunity to be a part of this growth-economically, politically. socially and culturally. And the struggle to promote the best interest of our community and contribute towards Canadian nation building can best be achieved by working together, by building alliances and advocating for social justice. The Filipino community is well-equipped to face the challenge – being one of the highly educated sector of the immigrant community and Canadian society.

Kababayan Community Centre has planted the seeds of community service, community capacity building and empowerment.  Every Filipino-Canadian community organizations in Ontario, therefore, must strive to emulate KCC’s achievements. Every leader of our community organizations must strive to nurture, to nourish and let that seed of service to our community bear fruits to sustain us and the future generations in this long journey.

All these can happen, sooner,  when we find ways to talk to each other, to study our national history and international events and issues that impact our community.  We must objectively and scientifically analyze our obstacles and problems and  find collective ways to act and solve them.

Thank you Kababayan Community Centre for having taken such leadership for the past 30 years.

Mabuhay!