February 2023 Event Recap EPIC Anti Racism Engagement

On January 14, 2022, members of the Filipino community in Edmonton gathered at the Strathcona Community League Hall for an engagement session called Pag-usapan natin: Let’s Talk, Community Conversations About Racism in the Filipino Community, organized by the Edmonton Philippine International Centre. Several nonprofit organizations in the city were granted funding by the Government of Alberta to facilitate events and activities to gather input from their respective ethnocultural community and compile information that the government will then use for making changes in their operations as well as potential changes in laws. This is a summary of the key points that our fellow Filipinos in the city had contributed. The organizers were grateful for those who participated and emphasized that an activity of this nature is the first of its kind in the Filipino community. While racism and discrimination are something that many people have encountered in various levels and in different forms, it is not discussed at all. After providing an overview of the objectives and the questions that participants were to answer, the attendees were broken down into smaller groups to encourage everyone to share more detail in a safe setting.

One of the themes discussed include describing circumstances where participants experienced racism and discrimination in Alberta and what actions can the Alberta government take to address racism and discrimination.

Another major theme explored is the barriers that individuals may face in accessing information, resources, and

General Point Of View

services from the Alberta government because of racial or cultural identity as well ideas on how the Alberta government reduce these barriers.

The other theme focused on looking into the future, on how the Alberta government can continue the discussion on anti-racism and meaningful ways to reporting progress on addressing these issues.

All the participants contributed enthusiastically during the engagement session, both as a collective group and in the smaller breakout groups. Many shared compelling stories of their personal gqgeneral@gmail.com hardships and their experiences both in the past and present. Some of the issues of racism are visible and blatant, such as name-calling or comments that undermine one’s intelligence because of their appearance. Some of the issued of racism are structural and subtle, such as the difficulty in obtaining work related to one’s profession prior to immigrating to Canada despite having the impression that the points system demonstrating that their skills are needed in the country.

Giselle General came from the cold, mountainous region of the Benguet province, and immigrated to Canada as a teenager in 2007. She completed a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Alberta, and has a career in the nonprofit sector. She works at the Edmonton Community Legal Centre, which provides free legal help to low-income Edmontonians. She channels her creativity by writing in her personal blog, FilipinaYEG, and self-published a book called The Humanity of Me, and is active in numerous volunteerbased initiatives.

Discussion on racism and anti-racism from the participants touched on related complexities. Several attendees made insightful points of how Filipinos can be perpetrators and contributors of racist incidents, whether it is towards people of other ethnicities especially Black and Indigenous Peoples, or towards other Filipinos with backgrounds different from their own. Many pointed out that part of eliminating the harmful impact of racism in the community is ensuring that people are aware of when they are being subjected to such treatment, and also ensuring that people are not behaving or condoning such behaviour.

During the discussion of accessing government programs and services, the challenges that were identified were identified as follows: language barriers and difficulty accessing the information on what is available, the lack of awareness that certain experiences and issues are harmful or illegal and therefore should be reported, and poor treatment from government staff due to their unconscious biases. The participants recommended that these factors are addressed in tandem in order to have meaningful change.

There were numerous insights shared by the participants during the event which were all compiled to a report and submitted to the Alberta government. The feedback was also helpful for the organizers in terms of ideas on how to build community through programs, services and events for Filipino-Edmontonians in the city.

Thank you to incredible volunteers of the Edmonton Philippine International Centre for all the hard work organizing this event and compiling the feedback in a thorough and comprehensive manner. We hope that the Alberta Government find the data useful in implementing positive changes in our community.