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Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance-National
Statement
Filipino Youth Celebrate One Year Anniversary of National Formation
24 September 2007
As Filipino youth in Canada, we celebrate with militancy the 1-year anniversary of the formation of the National Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance, this September 24, 2007.
In the past year as UKPC-National, we have effectively raised our profile by maintaining our political program of educating, organizing and mobilizing Filipino youth across Canada in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver as the only nation-wide national democratic Filipino youth organization outside of the Philippines.
The various chapters of UKPC in different provinces have adopted and localized our national program to meet their particular needs. UKPC-Ontario, based in Toronto, organizers have revised their action-plans, outreached at the University of Toronto, St. Jamestown and St. Joseph's Catholic Secondary School and have conducted leadership workshops to further understand the need to organize Filipino youth. Organizers in Vancouver celebrated the tenth installment of the annual cultural event “Roots, Rhymes and Resistance” at a new venue—Sir Charles Tupper Secondary school—a Vancouver high school with a large Filipino population and more closely rooted in the community, and recently did a presentation for the social justice committee of the BC Teacher Federation. In Montreal, organizers in UKPC member organization Kabataang Montreal participated and were featured in an art exhibit by Filipina arts-educator Marissa Largo.
We have continued to integrate and learn from the community, and continue to assert for our community’s democratic rights and welfare in Canada. Campaigns like our anti-racism campaign has taken shape at local levels though research, cultural events, forums and demonstrations. Most recently notable is in Montreal, where Kabataang Montreal supported a 17-year old Filipina in searching for justice against harassment by the Police in the Cote-des-Neige area of Quebec. This case furthered our analysis that Filipinos and other people of colour continually are brutalized and negatively profiled by the police in Canada.
Nationally, UKPC has supported and participated in initiatives in different sectors either through attendance or volunteering, such as the September 2006 consultation “Making the Filipino Community Count in Quebec” and having speaking engagements by executive and council members at “Making the Filipino Community Count in Ontario” and “Making the Filipino Community Count in BC” (November of 2006 and February 2007, respectively). These events, hosted by the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada, allowed UKPC to strengthen our analysis of the situation of Filipino youth, especially around the issues of racism and discrimination, family separation and reunification, and the high drop-out rates of high school aged-Filipino youth across Canada.
We were able to mobilize delegations from various cities to attend the conference “Link Arms, Raise Fists! Kapit Bisig! Magkaisa Kababaihan sa Pagpapalaya ng Bayan!” (Women unite towards the liberation of our nation!), in June 2007. Kapit Bisig brought together over 60 Filipino women, migrant workers and youth from across Canada to discuss the role of overseas Filipino women in the struggle for national democracy and genuine liberation in the Philippines. A main issue of discussion at this conference was on the topic of “balik ugat” or, returning to our roots. This emphasized the need for Filipinos in Canada to investigate to current situation of the Philippines not only by organizing in Canada, but by going back home to the Philippines to see, live and organize in the current conditions.
In keeping with the practice of “balik ugat” and serving the people, UKPC was able to send another member to the Philippines on a long-term integration and exposure program in 2006/07. UKPC-Vancouver member Albert Lopez spent 9 months in the Philippines to live with and learn from the most oppressed sectors of Philippine society. He also helped in campaigning for progressive partylist organizations such as the Gabriela and Kabataan partylists during the 2007 congressional elections. We welcome his safe return to Canada and look forward to hearing his reportback.
Internationally, we were able to send chairperson Carlo Sayo and vice-chair Rodney Patricio to the World People’s Youth Conference in Zoettermeer, Holland in March 2007 to present the situation of Filipino youth and migrants in Canada. This international anti-imperialist youth conference gathered youth representing peoples movements in various countries including the Philippines, Turkey, Greece, Afghanistan, Brazil, USA, Germany and many others. UKPC was the only Canadian-based organization present, and through this experience, strengthened our anti-imperialist stand and ally work amongst other progressive organizations internationally.
We are actively involved in international campaigns that address the worsening political, social and economic crisis in the Philippines. The Stop the Killings in the Philippines campaign has had consistent involvement from our membership including forums, media and letter-writing campaigns and protest rallies at Philippine consulates in various cities. Recently we took part in the campaign to release professor Jose Maria Sison after his arrest by Dutch authorities on August 28 on false and trumped-up charges. Across Canada, we picketed at Dutch consulate offices, and joined in international protest that saw his release. We will continue to actively engage in the campaign for Justice for Jose Maria Sison until the charges against him are dropped, and he is given political asylum in the Netherlands. A 2004 conference entitled “Laws Labels and Liberation” centered on international humanitarian laws, specifically on the case of Professor Sison will be revisited to further discuss his case in Toronto and Montreal. Plans to revisit the conference in Vancouver are also underway.
Despite the challenges due to a lack of core funding and uneven growth and development, our work in UKPC continues to thrive. The success of our organizations have been maintained by hardworking members and volunteers who carry on, understanding the need to have an organization that truly serves the needs of the most marginalized and oppressed members of our community. Whether it is a fundraising night at a club like in Toronto, poetry readings in Vancouver or even collecting pennies from the community like organizers did in Montreal, we have managed to be self-sustaining at the same time as maintaining our political campaigns and education so critically needed to empower our community. This is not an easy task, and something that we should be proud of as community organizers.
Organizationally, we hope to expand our organizing work to other provinces and encourage the participation of other local organizing groups to have a representative on our national council. As it stands, our national council consists of the following: sitting as executives are chairperson Carlo Sayo, Vice Chair Rodney Patricio and acting Secretary General Carl Cortes. Other council members include Chuck Patricio and Joy Carreon (Montreal), Rainiel DeGuzman (Vancouver) and the acting representative council member for Toronto Camille Cendana.
We have accomplished a lot in the past year, and there is still a lot more to do. So long as the Filipino community continues to be marginalized and under-represented, despite being the 3rd largest visible minority group in Canada, we must voice out our concerns and assert our rights. We can demand more from our governments and public institutions and insist that they be concerned about our community. As youth, we have not only the right, but also the responsibility, the intelligence, creativity and energy to advance and empower our community for full participation in Canada, for support and solidarity with the national democratic aspirations of the youth in the Philippines and for genuine development and liberation. #
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