Press Release
Philippine Women Centre of B.C.
Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance
Filipino Nurses Support Group
SIKLAB (Overseas Filipino workers' organization)
B.C. Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines

Filipinos hold forum series to address systemic racism and racial profiling

July 17, 2008

Various Filipino community-based organizations in BC have held two community forums titled “Filipino community unite for our social justice” to discuss the pattern of social injustices faced by the Filipino community.  The two forums, the first held in Vancouver on April 25 and the second held in Richmond on June 24, paid particular attention to the Filipino community’s experience with systemic racism and racial profiling, with the Dalde family’s treatment by Richmond RCMP in the forefront.

On April 14th of this year, Charle Dalde, a 24-year old Filipino man, was victim to a random unprovoked stabbing in Richmond, BC.  On the night of Charle’s fatal attack, the Dalde family received a call from Richmond Hospital that their son was in critical condition.  Soon after the phone call, Harlyn, mother of Charle, received another call from the RCMP instructing the family to leave behind their weapons.  Confused by the call, the family hung up and prepared to rush to the hospital.  But the RCMP prevented Charle's parents and brother from rushing to their dying son. In the hallway of their apartment building, the RCMP, with weapons drawn, handcuffed the Dalde family to the floor and raided their apartment without warrant or explanation.  After 15 minutes, the RCMP released them, but it was too late. Charle had already died from his multiple stab wounds.  The RCMP also barred the Dalde family from seeing their dead son at the hospital. Even though the family pleaded to see Charle's body, they were refused that request.  The family was not involved in formally identifying the victim’s body to be sure that it was truly their relative.

Participants asked: “Why did the RCMP assume the Dalde family possess weapons?  Why did the RCMP forcibly restrain the family?  Why did the RCMP search their apartment without explanation or warrant?  Why did the RCMP deny their request to identify the victim?”

Other Filipino families have also opened up their experiences with racial profiling by the RCMP.  Belen Vasquez, a panel speaker at the Richmond forum, shared that in 1999, her teenage son and 7 other youths were stopped by undercover police while walking home from a basketball game.  Three of the youth, including Belen’s son, were arrested and detained overnight at the police station.  The police forced the youth to sleep only in their underwear.  Using a felt marker, the police marked their faces with an “X”.  The police charged her son with the possession of a machete and forced him to sign the admission.  The police threatened her son that if he did not sign, he would face more charges.  On the day of the arrest, Belen was informed by the police via telephone that her son was in the custody of the Vancouver police at the Hornby location.  When she went there to see her son, she was directed to the Main Street precinct.  But when she went to there, she was informed that her son was also not there.  “I couldn’t sleep, I cried throughout the night, worried because I didn’t know where I could locate him.  I was traumatized, my whole body was shaking,” Belen recalled.  The next morning, she went back to the Hornby police station and they advised her again that her son was not there.  She received the same answer when she called all the precincts.  Only when her lawyer called the police department, the police disclosed that Belen’s son was in Burnaby.  “When I finally saw my son, he hugged me and asked me if I had any food.”  Belen proceeded with a legal case on the issue and was able to clear her son’s name of the charge and received an informal private apology from the police.

“It is important to name and analyze the experiences of the Dalde and Vasquez families as systemic racism and racial profiling,” stated forum panelist Ning Alcuitas, Filipino lawyer and chairperson of the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada   “Bias and discrimination is a daily reality for our community.”  According to Statistics Canada, 81% of visible minorities who felt that they had experienced discrimination believed that it was because of their race or ethnic origin.  “Racism exists not only between individuals, but it is built into the system.  Racism is connected to political and economic structures of society and serves to maintain the status quo,” Alcuitas explained.

Panelists at the forums identified that existing polices at a global, Canadian, and Philippine level, have kept the Filipino community invisible, marginalized, and underdeveloped.  The community’s context of marginalization leaves Filipinos vulnerable to being negatively stereotyped.  The Live-in Caregiver Program is one example of how Canadian policy has legislated Filipino women into low economic status and has socially constructed Filipino women as nannies and domestic workers.  Also, newly arrived Filipino youth, especially children of Live-in Caregivers, have been negatively stereotyped as troublemakers, gang members, or uncivilized individuals engaged in criminal activities.

From the perspective of the Filipino community members at the forums, the Dalde and Vasquez families’ are victims of racial profiling.  Charle Dalde and his family, Belen’s son, and his Filipino peers, were criminalized by the RCMP because of the Filipino community’s lack of economic and political influence in Canada and because criminal activity has been attributed to Filipinos within Canadian society. 

The experiences of the Dalde and Vasquez families raised many questions:  “What is the protocol of the RMCP?  Why have the RMCP not publicly apologized for their actions? Is there anti-racism policy and training within the RCMP, and more specifically, are there existing policy and training to prevent racial profiling?” 

Both community forums identified the need to continue the community discussion in order for the community to better understand more about the current situation and experience, to understand why social injustices are happening to our community, and to understand and discuss how we can support victims of racial profiling in their call for justice, and to prevent these injustices from occurring again. 

For over ten years, the Kalayaan Centre organizations have been conducting community-led work to combat systemic racism.  Future community forums are planned for Surrey, New Westminster, and Burnaby.  Further details will be announced soon.##

Press Release of:
Philippine Women Centre of B.C.
Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance
Filipino Nurses Support Group
SIKLAB (Overseas Filipino workers' organization)
B.C. Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines

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