July 1, 2025 – In July 2016 I wrote the first editorial to launch our digital biweekly newsmagazine Canadian Filipino.Net. Titled: “A website for thought and action,” it stated CFNet’s mission as “to connect Filipinos in Canada from coast to coast to coast, focus on their issues as a community, highlight their heritage and social, cultural and economic contributions to Canada, and promote their engagement in Canada’s multicultural society.”
Why we used Canadian Filipino in contrast with the more common Filipino Canadian term?” Because it focuses on who and what we wanted to highlight: the Filipino as a Canadian and the Filipino’s experience in Canada.
In the last nine years of publication (2016 - 2025), CFNet has managed to inform, engage and facilitate interactions among self-aware and involved Filipinos in Canada through digital media, discussions and debates; provided them with a platform to express their views, needs, and issues as well as opportunities do something about them; and shared their values and culture with other Canadians in order to promote understanding and collaboration among Canada’s rapidly growing diverse population. The highlight of each year was CFNet’s list of Outstanding Filipinos in Canada presented in June in celebration of Philippine Heritage month in Canada.
By 2025, Filipinos in Canada, most of them immigrating to Canada only in the last 50 years, have grown to a million strong across the country. Because of their various needs, jobs, and different places of origin in the Philippines, they have organized themselves into various factions and organizations often competing against each other. Thus the Filipino community was often seen as fragmented and disunited, refusing to form a united council for all Filipino Associations in Canada.
A fatal day in 2025 – April 26 – vanished all that disunity among Filipinos when tragedy ended a joyful celebration of Lapu lapu Day in Vancouver. A mentally unstable driver rammed his SUV through a crowd of merrymakers enjoying Filipino food from a row of food trucks, killing 11 and seriously injuring more than 30 among them. It was a traumatic blow to the Filipino community. Individually or as a group, they came together as one to grieve and support families impacted by the tragedy.
RJ Aquino of Filipino BC, the group organizing the annual the Lau Lapu Day street festival, was overwhelmed by the kindness and generosity of time and resources offered by the Filipino community along with the support of other Canadians in general.
In the face of this tragic event, CFNet witnessed the emergence of a strong and united Filipino community in Canada. While CFNet, for the last nine years, has focused its attention on outstanding Filipinos who have succeeded in Canada and brought honor not only to the Philippines but to Canada as well, it will now showcase the Filipino values of kapwa (shared identity) and bayanihan (collective care) as they live them in Canada.
Starting with its 10th year of publication today, CFNet is focusing its coverage on a strong, united and hopeful Filipino community proud of its Philippine heritage and happy to share it with other Canadians as they nurture their new role as a united community, helping each other and respecting each other’s differences, while they work side by side with other Canadians and evolve into their new “Canadian Filipino community” identity. ERL
Canadian Filipino Net is an independent, non-profit digital magazine produced by volunteer writers, editors, and webmasters. Your donation will go a long way so we can continuously publish stories about Canadian Filipinos. Click on a donate button and proceed either through PayPal, Debit, or Credit Card.
