Editorial

April 16, 2025 - The critical 12-day home-stretch for Canada Election 2025 begins with this Canadian Filipino Net edition. 

When I first heard on TV of Trump’s silly joke to make Canada his 51^st American state, I wondered why American and Canadian media were making such a big fuss over a silly joke. That  was what Europeans thought it was. Still many Canadians and Americans got worried and talked more about it; giving Trump the publicity he loves especially if it mentions his name. 

Winnipeg, February 1, 2025: “In this troubled world in these troubled times, each of us shall re-affirm our faith in peace and humanity.” Thus began our last year’s editorial, Palestinians and Israelis can live in peace, security and dignity, which closed with these statements: “May peace and humanity return to the region. It is our fervent hope.” 

June 2024 — In 1979 my college friend Fely Villasin (see Outstanding Filipinos in Canada for 2021) organized  domestic workers in Toronto. Joining with other Filipino women who considered Canada’s Foreign Domestic Movement program prejudiced and unfair to women, they formed INTERCEDE.  Their main goal was to fight for landed status for domestic workers.  Soon they expanded their activities to other parts of Canada. In Vancouver they partnered with CDWCR (Committee for Domestic Workers and Caregivers Rights).

 In this troubled world in these troubled times, each of us shall re-affirm our faith in peace and humanity. Two days ago, the governments of Canada, Australia and New Zealand – through their respective elected leaders – issued a joint statement that reflects the collective voice of their citizens on the world’s most urgent peace and humanitarian issue. This columnist has re-printed below the full Joint Statement as released in Ottawa on February 14^th:

Featured elsewhere in this issue are the Editor’s takeaways from the written interview he conducted with University of British Columbia alumna and Asia Pacific Foundation research specialist Canadian Filipino Phebe Ferrer, a valued member of our community. 

In May 2002, the Government of Canada declared May as Asian Heritage Month. The move was meant to give all Canadians the opportunity to learn about the history of Asian Canadians, and to celebrate their contributions to Canadian society.

What should have been good news for Filipino nurses hoping to find greener pastures in Canada is now being met with criticism against Canadian provincial governments who have launched direct recruitment missions to the Philippines.

The countdown has begun for the 50th-year anniversary of the declaration of martial law in the Philippines.

In March 2018, House Bill 7303, "An Act Instituting Absolute Divorce and Dissolution of Marriage in the Philippines" languished on the Senate floor, its passage into law uncertain.

As evidenced by two countries on either side of the Pacific Ocean, this year marks the beginning and the end of that ideal often referred to as the “last great experiment” – democracy.

Like other immigrant communities in Canada, Filipinos are far from being a homogenous group.