Editorial

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.

This month as Filipinos in Canada are celebrating the rites of spring and new beginnings, Filipino voters are faced with a crucial task of electing their next president along with hundreds of other government officials in a national election on May 9^th. 

For those who lived through or grew up from 1972 to 1986, there are palpable parallelisms between the Philippines’ martial law era to present-day Russia. While Russian president Vladimir Putin’s war is in Ukraine and Ferdinand E. Marcos’ war was against his countrymen, the similarities are nonetheless striking.

Some Filipinos who are passionate about politics in their homeland sometimes say one thing during presidential elections.