Commentary

Reflecting on the Philippines from abroad, I’ve had the chance to work with amazing communities in our islands’ global diasporas.

Since the 1960s when Filipinos started arriving in Canada in large numbers, they had managed to become seamlessly integrated in Canadian mainstream society.

The Philippines can really be amazing to “foreigners” like us who come home to visit our uber-ly hospitable friends and relatives.

Editor: In February of this year, a possible strike and walk-out by custodial staff was averted when a tentative deal was struck between union and management at the Capilano University.

I came across an article on your website by Linda Torio.

When I asked my children what they wanted for dinner one evening, they said, “We want Filipino food.” That gave me pause, because at their age, it never occurred to me to qualify what I eat. Everything I ate was Filipino food.

Editor’s note: We are pleased to feature this essay by our newest contributor Carissa Duenas based in Toronto, Ontario.

Among Filipinos in Canada today, there are two distinct groups that will eventually become the face of Canadian Filipinos of the future:

Last year, I had an opportunity to facilitate classes to supplement students’ Socials Studies curriculum at a Vancouver school.

Schools across Surrey and the Lower Mainland of British Columbia have been struggling to find ways to solve overcrowding in classrooms.

Juan Alim, 78, a former Filipino citizen who was naturalized as a Canadian citizen in 1998, arrived in Manila last year to celebrate Christmas with relatives.

Eleanor Guerrero Campbell: By the time this issue of Canadian Filipino Net appears online, the Trudeau government would have been in office for a little over a year,

Eleanor Guerrero Campbell: Both the mandate letter to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada Minister John McCallum and the Speech from the Throne are re-assuring of the federal government’s commitments to deliver on its 2015 election platform on immigration.

Temporary foreign worker programs (TFWP) or “guest worker” schemes are an example of contradictions in liberal democratic states

Eleanor Guerrero Campbell: First, tell us more about the Prime Minister’s ‘Mandate Letters’ to his Ministers. Are they merely a repetition of the election platform?

Eleanor Guerrero-Campbell: November 4 this year marks the first-year anniversary of the federal government under the leadership of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who, a year ago, campaigned on their platform, “Strong Middle Class”.