With a volunteer staff’s perseverance and hard work, Year 3 (from 1 July 2018 to 30 June 2019) was another good year for Canadian Filipino Net.  Much appreciation goes to managing editor Rachel Reid. And to webmaster Arlene Wright for meeting unforgiving publishing deadlines and making the stories shine on the website pages every 1^st and 16^th of each month. 

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau posted on Facebook photos of his visit to a Filipino restaurant in Toronto.

“Celebrating Filipino Heritage Month with Salma Zahid and a big plate of food in Scarborough,” the social media-savvy politician wrote on June 14.

The Canadian government announced on June 15 the launch of two new pilot programs for caregivers.

In a media release, the government stated that the Home Child Care Provider, and Home Support Worker programs will open for applications on June 18.

Throughout Canada, Canadian Filipinos are partying this entire month of June to celebrate Canada’s first Filipino Heritage Month. Below are just some of the events being held to celebrate this national declaration and the Philippines’ 121^st Independence Day.

It’s a great time to be a Canadian Filipino.

People who are new to Canada are in some situations at risk of being abused and exploited.

These include foreign workers and family members, whose wellbeing depends on others.

A global network concerned about human rights in the Philippines has launched a chapter in Canada.

International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines-Canada (ICHRP-Canada) was established at a meeting on May 11 and May 12 in Ottawa at the national headquarters of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC).

Mabuhay! Be recognized and be proud as Filipinos!

Celebrate everything Filipino as Canada for the very first time honours all Filipinos with the designation of June as Filipino Heritage month across the country.

A dozen Canadian Filipino youths from across the country are learning the ropes of how Parliament works.

They are participating in the first Canadian-Philippine Interparliamentary Program, one of the initiatives marking the maiden and nationwide celebration of Filipino Heritage Month in Canada in June 2019.

A number of municipal groups, health coalitions and advocacy organizations have protested Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s cuts to provincial public health funding. Among them is Toronto Public Health (TPH) led by its chief medical officer, Dr. Eileen de Villa, a soft-spoken mother of teenage boys and a Canadian Filipino.

Filipinos in Canada perhaps knew it intuitively but were not exactly sure. If they felt that Canadian residents of Filipino ancestry were sending more money to their country of birth than other groups, a study by Statistics Canada has validated this hunch.

The federal government has announced an investment of over $3 million for 10 women's organizations and Indigenous organizations in the Greater Montréal Area.

One of the organizations is PINAY, a Canadian Filipino group serving Filipino temporary foreign workers and immigrant women.

The flurry of pre-election activities from calling Filipino citizens to register between December 2016 and October 2018 to the final stretches of the mid-term elections came to a slow-down on election day itself, May 13, not just in the Philippines but also in Philippine consulates and embassies worldwide.

Until recently, Canada and the Philippines enjoyed warm and cordial bilateral relations.

Then it began to sour about two years ago. In November 2017, while attending an international summit in Manila, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau raised concerns about the drug war being waged by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.

The annual explorASIAN festival, launched on April 27 at SFU’s Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre in downtown Vancouver,   kicks off a May month-long celebration.

In recognition of the role of overseas Filipinos in nation-building, the Philippine government established the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) in 1980 in order to engage Filipinos abroad and strengthen their  links to the home country.