September 16, 2025 — They came as temporary foreign workers (TFWs) in Canada, and many of them have stayed for good.

[Editor’s Note: Dr. Pagtakhan – a retired medical professor from the University of Manitoba and former Parliamentary Secretary to former Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Minister of Western Economic Diversification in former Prime Minister Paul Martin’s cabinet – served in Parliament from 1988 to 2004. This Commentary is from his column, Medisina at Politika, published in Pilipino Express.] 

September 16, 2025 – Several months have passed since the senseless tragedy that struck the Lapu-Lapu Filipino Street Festival in Vancouver on April 26, 2025. What should have been a joyful celebration of culture and community turned into a day of unimaginable grief when an SUV plowed into the crowd, taking 11 lives and injuring dozens more.

September 1, 2025 — Still living with your oldies?

September 1, 2025 — The best cure for winter blues is a 10-day visit to sunny Philippines.  Sponsored by the Philippine Foreign Service Posts in Canada, namely, Ottawa, Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto, together with the Philippine Department of Tourism. the Philippine Ambassador to Canada, Hon. Jose Victor V. Chan-Gonzaga, along with the Philippine Consuls General in Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary will be joining this tour. 

September 1, 2025 - Six not-for-profit groups in the Philippines will receive grants from the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI) this year. The CFLI is a competitive grants program run by the Embassy of Canada in the Philippines that provides direct financial support for small-scale, high impact projects that promote inclusive and accountable governance in areas such as human rights, gender equality, and climate resilience.

September 1, 2025 — There are no longer bouquets of flowers, rows of candles, and handwritten notes at the fence of the John Oliver Secondary School along East 41st Avenue and Fraser Street– the makeshift memorial in the aftermath of the tragedy that struck the Lapu-Lapu festival in Vancouver on April 26, 2025. 

August 16, 2025 — Canadian Filipinos who voted for Liberal Mark Carney as Canada’s prime minister on April 29 now have 10 reasons to rejoice as PM Carney marks his 100 days in office this month.

August 16, 2025 — Canadian labour unions are calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney to halt further military cooperation with the Philippines.

 I was with my family waiting for our order at a restaurant when I received the call. We left the festival area just as the main stage acts were in progress and the crowd had grown to an impressive size.

 August 1, 2025 - A B.C. government report confirms that Canadian Filipinos in British Columbia seek a dedicated cultural centre to help build community and “foster a sense of family and belonging, learn from elders, and create pride in heritage for the youth of the Filipino community”.

August 1, 2025 — Canada is a country celebrated for its diversity and embrace of multiculturalism.

August 1, 2025 — You won’t believe how empty Vancouver was in the early 1960s. 

August 1, 2025 — Mireia Ariana Amba Cuenca, incoming Grade 12 student at Surrey School District’s IB program, has been honing her language skills by challenging herself in speech competitions in French and in English. She is also honing her singing and Filipino language skills by performing with a youth choir that sings Tagalog and other dialects spoken in the Philippines.  She is known as someone who always  tries very hard to succeed  at things that she does. 

July 16, 2025 - The provincial government of Manitoba committed $900,000 in funding to Filipino community groups to establish a new Filipino business, cultural and care sector zone.