Media Advisory
Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance

Filipino Youth Group to Hold Press Conference to Address Impact of Systemic Racism on Youth

For immediate release, 24 Monday 2005

Vancouver, BC -- On the eve of the trial of the accused killers of Filipino teen, Mao Jomar Lanot, the Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance (FCYA) will host a press conference to uncover the destructive impacts of systemic racism on Filipino and other marginalized youth. The press conference will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, October 25, 2005 at the Kalayaan Centre, 451 Powell Street in Vancouver (North side of Powell Street, between Jackson and Dunlevy Streets, across Oppenheimer Park).

Recently, the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) released a statement on “escalating violence” between Filipino and Vietnamese youth. Members of FCYA will raise their concerns that the larger issues of systemic racism and underdevelopment of immigrant communities of colour are not being addressed by the police or the media.

“Both the Filipino and the Vietnamese communities are highly marginalized in Canadian society,” says Charlene Sayo of the FCYA. “We should look beyond the issue of violence to understand the lack of services, support and education faced by these communities which leaves our youth abandoned. Currently, Filipinos have one of the highest high-school drop-out rates.”

“What we need are better community-based programs for youth to be a part of that aim for their genuine empowerment and development,” says Carl Cortes. “We also need Canadian institutions, like the Vancouver Police Department and the Vancouver School Board, to acknowledge the existence of systemic racism and listen to recommendations for change coming from the community.”

The FCYA has been actively organizing against systemic racism for 10 years. As early as 1998, the group spoke out when 14 Filipino youth and 2 Fijian youth were attacked by a larger group of Caucasian youth in a campground in Squamish. The FCYA also took a leading role in exposing systemic racism in the Vancouver school system in 1999 when 25 Filipino youth were forced to transfer from Vancouver Technical Secondary after racist incidents in the school.

In November of 2003, Mao Jomar Lanot a 17-year old student of Sir Charles Tupper Secondary was beaten outside of his high school by a group of youth. He died several hours later. FCYA also took a leading role in exposing the issue of systemic racism in the school system after Lanot’s death. “Not much has changed,” says Cortes, “since Vantech in 1999, to the Jomar Lanot case in 2003.”

Sayo says that FCYA is committed, and will continue to educate and organize youth to understand the issues faced by their community, and empower them to overcome those barriers.

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For information please contact 604-215-1103