By Veronica Uy
INQ7.net

RP raps Canadian school for penalizing boy using fork, spoon

First posted 04:43pm (Mla time) May 03, 2006

(UPDATE) THE PHILIPPINE embassy in Ottawa has decried as an “affront to the Filipino culture” a Canadian school’s punitive action against a seven-year-old Filipino-Canadian boy who ate “like a pig” by using spoon and fork, instead of fork and knife, an official said Wednesday.

The reprimand on Luc Cagadoc by the canteen monitor of a school in Roxboro, Montreal on April 11 has also spawned debates about what is acceptable table etiquette.

“The embassy considers the incident an affront to the Filipino culture,” Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Gilbert Asuque said.

Cagadoc was even isolated from the rest of his schoolmates for not eating the way Canadians did, he said.

Maria Theresa Gallardo, the boy’s mother, took her son's case to the principal. But the principal instead sided with the monitor who described Cagadoc as “eating like a pig,” Asuque said.

This infuriated many Filipinos in Canada. And the case has been circulating in various e-mail groups among Filipinos, triggering cultural discourse.

“What about the Chinese and the Japanese who eat with chopsticks?” is a common reaction to the punishment meted out by the school.

“Ambassador Jose Brillantes is coordinating with members of the Filipino community who are outraged by the incident,” Asuque said.

He said the Philippine embassy in Ottawa “will vigorously support any action that will validate a conclusion of racial discrimination committed against the Filipino student.”

The Center for Research Action on Race Relations in Montreal filed a complaint before the school’s board, on behalf of the Filipino students and parents, and asked for an undetermined amount in moral damages, Asuque said.

The Filipino Association of Montreal is also supporting the family of Gallardo in their action against the school.

In Manila, the Canadian embassy refused to comment on the issue.

The Gallardo-Cagadoc family migrated to Canada from Misamis province in 1999.