Ugnayan Ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/the Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance-Vancouver
Statement
Delivered at the Community Vigil for Mao Jomar Lanot

After four years, Jomar’s memory still inspires Filipino youth to fight against systemic racism!

November 29, 2007

November of this year marks the fourth anniversary of the untimely passing of Mao Jomar Lanot, a young Filipino student whose life was tragically taken from him after being beaten up on grounds of Sir Charles Tupper Secondary School. Since that tragic day in November in 2003, the Lanot family has had to endure a lot. The loss of Jomar was not only felt by his family and friends but by the entire Filipino community in Vancouver and beyond. The impacts felt from a senseless tragedy are always great and we are often left with the question, why? Why did such a horrible thing have to happen? Why weren’t there measures implemented to prevent such a tragedy? Why did our public institutions ignore the calls from our communities to deal with systemic barriers such as racism?
 
We are all gathered here to pay respect to the Lanot family and to the memory of Jomar. But in order to truly honor Jomar’s memory, we must ensure that an unfortunate tragedy like Mao Jomars death doesn’t befall our community again. The strength the Lanot family has shown to us during the past four years has not only moved the Filipino community and other marginalized communities but has inspired those who have been victimized by systemic racism to keep on struggling.

Our organization Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance recognizes that there is still a long way to go before systemic racism becomes a distant memory. For us in the Filipino community, we believe that learning from the tragic death of Mao Jomar Lanot is of outmost importance especially in our struggle towards genuine equality and development in Canadian society.

As Filipino youth in Canada we face many barriers that continually push us to the margins of society. One of these barriers is systemic racism and institutions’ severe lack of understanding about the realities of Filipino and youth of colour. Without this basic understanding of the realities, struggles, and issues they face day-to-day, institutions like our school system will continue to play a role in our communities' alienation and segregation in Canadian society. Without this basic understanding, our school system will continue to neglect the needs of Filipino and youth of colour.

The majority of Filipino students in Vancouver school are sons and daughters of former live-in domestic workers. Forced from the Philippines because of poverty and lack of opportunity, their mothers came to Canada, many leaving their children behind, to work as live-in domestic workers under Citizenship and Immigration Canadad’s Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP). The LCP stipulates that women cannot bring their children with them. Therefore, Filipino youth experience long years of family separation, for some, they are even separated from their families for more than 8 years. When they are finally reunited in Canada, they are reunited as strangers while at the same time our youth must contend with adapting to a new life, culture and society.

This traumatic experience of separation, migration, and family re-unification takes a toll on our youth. In knowing this it becomes more understandable why Filipino youth have the second highest drop out rate from Vancouver high schools and that Filipino youth have one of the lowest grade point averages compared to other youth.

Therefore, we must unite and assert ourselves as a community and demand our right to education and full participation be met. Nearly four years after the passing of Mao Jomar Lanot, we as an organization of Filipino youth and students, now more than ever demand genuine long term solutions to end systemic racism.

We will not let Jomar's death be forgotten.   As a community we will come together to continue to educate and organize ourselves. We will continue to reach out to other marginalized communities. We will also continue to demand that Canadian institutions be accountable for the destructive impacts of systemic racism in their words, actions, policies and practices.   In this so-called multicultural and diverse society, it is our right as a community to be treated with respect and dignity.   We deserve no less and we will continue to struggle for our community's future - for its genuine development and equality in Canadian society.

Honor the memory of Jomar!
Scrap the Live-in Caregiver Program! End family separation!
Provide genuine programs and services for Filipino youth in Vancouver schools!
End systemic racism!
Heighten our unity against systemic racism!

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