1st Edition | April-July 2015

COUNTER SPIN First Edition | April 2015

Magkaisa Centre|Official Newsletter

Celebrating SPIN COUNTER International Women’s SPIN COUNTER Achieving national childcare: Progressive Filipino Women’s Perspective 12

IWD Statement: Celebrating Our Gains, paving our future towards women’s liberation 3

Celebrating IWD with the Philippine women centre 8

Month

Magkaisa Centre|Official Newsletter

Contents IWD 2015 NAPWC Statement Event Highlights Diasporic Intimacies Unmasking Multiculturalism

PWC celebrates IWD

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Where Have All the Women Gone?

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Achieving National Childcare: Progressive Filipino Women’s Perspective

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NAPWC National Statement

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Upcoming EventS

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Organization Biographies

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WHY COunterspin?

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Celebrating our gains: paving our future for genuine women’s liberation NAPWC Statement | March 8, 2015 The National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC) celebrates International Women’s Day in honour of all working class women around the world who fought and continue to fight for women’s equality, genuine development, and human rights.This legacy of resistance embodies women’s heightened militancy and strong resolve in building a society that places women’s struggles for genuine liberation and emancipation at the forefront.

As the Philippine Women Centre of B.C. and Ontario celebrate its 25th and 15th year of organizing Filipino Canadian women this year, it is, once again, time for us to continue building on what we have learned from the past and share the wealth of knowledge that we have gained and acquired throughout the years. We are realizing a strong sense of our history as a people, and the unwavering resistance of our women. We mark this year’s IWD in celebration of the countless contributions of women who have given us the inspiration to take the revolutionary road and intensify our struggle against the escalating attacks perpetuated against us by patriarchy, gender oppression, class exploitation, and racial discrimination.

As progressive Filipino Canadian women, we will not stand down in our fight against the attacks on our fundamental human rights and in our call for our genuine settlement and integration in Canada. Filipino Canadian women, and other marginalized women, are the hardest hit by the most vicious attacks and atrocities brought upon by the imposition of neoliberal policies of globalization that wreak havoc in our lives and systematically push us more and more into the margins of Canadian society. The systematic degradation and subjugation of our women become all the more pronounced as Canada, under the Conservative

government, gears up its implementation of antiwoman and racist policies, such as the rebranding of the Live-in Caregiver Program that is now known as Canada’s Caregiver Program, and the expansion of the Temporary Foreign Workers Program (TFWP).

After 25 years of organizing Filipino Canadian women and our community, we remain steadfast in our call for the scrapping of TFWP, including Canada’s Caregiver Program. We are well aware that the recent changes made to the Live-in Caregiver Program were mere band-aid solutions and were a ploy to silence and pacify us into accepting that this is the future that is reserved for us. We denounce the modern-day slavery of our women under this program and remain vigilant in our call and demand for the implementation of universal childcare in Canada and to stop the privatization of healthcare and elderlycare.

As we marched in solidarity and unity on the streets of Toronto on March 7th, the Philippine Women Centre of ON continued to commemorate IWD on March 8th by celebrating our gains from the past 25 years, bringing forward the contributions of Filipino Canadian women in leading and organizing the struggle to place working class marginalized and racialized women’s struggles at the centre of the women’s movement. March 8th is the day that we, once again, reaffirm our commitment to take the revolutionary road and wage the struggle for genuine women’s liberation and empowerment forward.

End the exploitation, march for genuine women’s liberation!

End violence against women!

Women’s liberation is not negotiable!

Expose and oppose neoliberal policies!

Long live international women’s solidarity!

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EVENT HIGHLIGHTS

JAN 23 - FEB 15 Featured in: “Visualizing the Intima Curated by Marissa Largo and Robert Diaz Part of the “Diasporic Intimacies: Queer Filipino/as and Canadian Imaginaries” conference Location: OCAD Open Gallery, 49 McCaul Street, Toronto

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ate in Filipino/a Lives� Art Exhibit

PICTURE IN PICTURE: FILIPINO WOMEN ACROSS THE DECADES This self-portrait series features Filipino Canadian Women who have come to Canada through different periods of immigration from the 1960s to the present. Each portrait is a snap-shot that displays the experiences of a Filipino woman in terms of their expectations, realization, roles and responsibilities, before and after arriving to Canada. In each selfportrait, a woman holds a photograph — a personally selected image of herself prior to or subsequently after her arrival to Canada. This piece offers a sharing of their experiences.

This piece is part of the Our Voices: A Portrait Series art exhibit spearheaded by the Philippine Women Centre of Ontario in collaboration with the Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance of Ontario and SIKLAB-Ontario.

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Unmasking Multiculturalism Student centre , york university

January 28, 2015

In lieu of the multicultural event at York University last January 23rd – 29th, Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance–Ontario (FYCA/ UKPC–ON), held a political fashion show entitled, “Unmasking Multiculturalism,” featuring the Kapit Bisig Maleta (Link-arms Suitcases) showcasing the lived experiences of Filipino Canadians under “multicultural” Canada.As a progressive organization of Filipino Canadian youth and students, we along with our sister organizations — Philippine Women Centre of Ontario (PWC-ON) and SIKLAB Ontario (Advance and Uphold the Struggle of Filipino Canadian Workers/Sulong Itaguyod Karapatan ng mga Manggagawang Pilipino sa Labas ng Bansa)—celebrate the culture of resistance and continue to combat systemic racism with “Unmasking Multiculturalism”.

Reuben Sarumugam, the FCYA/UKPC Chairperson, gave an opening speech introducing the FCYA/UKPC and its role in educating, mobilizing, and organizing youth of

colour, as well as, highlighting the struggle for genuine settlement and integration of racialized groups in Canada. He also emphasized on the historical context of multiculturalism as a means to pacify railroad workers, who were mostly Chinese migrants, in Canada during John A. MacDonald’s administration.Today, the multicultural policy still endorses an ideology of cultural superiority among marginalized communities, effectively disempowering racialized groups while maintaining the racial and social hierarchy.

At the end of the night, the political fashion show highlighted the lived experiences of the members of the Filipino Canadian community.

Each maleta (suitcase) represents the story of the community—their struggles and culture of resistance. This was followed by a discussion among FCYA/UKPC members and guests that stressed the importance of not individualizing the struggles but acknowledging the common ground of the issues faced by the Filipino Canadian community.

- FCYA/UKPC-Ontario

Photographer: Czarina Ortega

IWD March March 7

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IWD Celebration march 8

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Where Have all the women gone?

By Charlene Sayo

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They’re swept away In a savage Diaspora Forever banished from Their homes in their own land Except for a lucky few who Return first class in splintered Rest In Peace boxes

Supreme malicious liberties On Third World women Who bear no Importance Third World women Who bear no Importance

Mothers, daughters and wives Of an entire nation exiled Since birth to an inherited Life sentence of economic shackles Their existence commodified Their bodies objectified Their voices denied Steadily trafficked through seedy Roads, intersections and freeways of The Labour Export Policy The Live-in Caregiver Program and Mail Order Bride destinations Licensed to agencies, pimps, husbands and Middle class families Who vilely impose their

Third World women Like Veronica Vasquez Whose virginal 19 years was Violated and stolen By her blue-eyed Serial rapist husband To secure the security of Her perishing family In the barren province of Valenzuela Veronica Vasquez Can’t fathom Where she has gone Nor grapple with the Promised splendour that Never arrived

As her wheyfaced husband Pleasures himself in the Remains of Veronica’s once Stirring body Climaxing on a breathing Cadaver who begs to be Waken from the Pillaging nightmare That does not cease The Pillaging nightmare That does not cease

Sarah Balabagan Sylvia Banaag Gloria Barlaan Milagros Bordador Flor Contemplacion Marites Decardo Evelyn Flores Edna Fojas Anita Fuggan Eleanor Jasereno Heidi Juperatum Maria Fe Ocampo Susan Remerata Maricris Sioson Sarah Tabar Emilita Villa Commodified, objectified Vilified, denied Mysteriously died And still you ask, Where have all the women gone? originally published in “Canada: the new frontier for filipino mail-order brides”, 2000.

Illustrator: Kim VIllagante

And still you ask, Where have all the women gone?

Polishing silver in West Van homes from Dusk ’till dawn Caring for babies that are Not their own Listening to their children’s Strangeness over the Cold hard phone Serving the needs of others Until their bones crack dry Disposing their cheap labour Until there’s nothing left to buy Stripping in Japan For the golden yen Selling their sex to Foreign gentlemen Chasing pipe dreams that Will never come Working, hoping, praying Until their bodies are cold and numb Execution in Singapore Was it for slaving Pinay maid Flor 100 bloody slashes was vanquished upon Sloven Sarah B. ’Cuz killing your employer To avenge your rape Ain’t allowed in Saudi Failed by their homestead who

Refuses to set them free Packaged, priced and exported deliberately Struggling in alien countries That offer no opportunities Burdened by debts that Chain their histories Living through their Ancestors colonized miseries

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Feature Article Achieving national childcare: A progressive Filipino Canadian women’s perspective by the Philippine Women Centre of Ontario

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he recently reformed Canada’s Caregiver Program, previously called the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP), is part of Canada’s long history of recruiting racialized women as indentured and cheap labour from Third World countries to fill Canada’s childcare needs.

Since the establishment of Canada as a confederation, and its expansion geographically and economically, childcare has always been in demand and has historically been relegated to women. Filipino Canadian women’s history of migration to Canada has largely been shaped by these labour needs and gendered labour divisions. The 2013 report from Citizenship & Immigration Canada confirms that Filipino women make up 65% of participants coming through the Temporary Work Stream of the Caregiver Program. But their experiences are continuously marked by racism, violence, and exploitation, preserved by Canada’s history of recruiting racialized women from which domestic work programs like the Caregiver Program originate from.

During the 1950s, as an economic necessity to fill childcare and domestic labour needs, Canada was forced to reevaluate their racist immigration policies in order to recruit Black women from the Caribbean islands into domestic work. Canada was able to implement a bilateral agreement with Caribbean countries that allowed Canada to establish the West Indian Domestic Scheme in 1955. Many well educated Caribbean women came through this employer sponsored program,

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lured by the possibility of becoming permanent immigrants.The government’s satisfaction with the program was plainly stated: Caribbean women, not only worked for lower than minimum wages, but they would also not be able to find opportunity in Canada outside of domestic service. In reality, Canada had long established the systemic subordination of Black women even after slavery was officially abolished in North America. This program would only perpetuate the slavery of women in its new form via international trade agreements, championed by the emergence of globalization. In the end, Canada’s labour force, structured by racism, classism and gender oppression, is what would continue to prevent Black women from participating in anything outside of domestic work.

Since the West Indian Domestic Scheme, the government reformed and renamed this model as the Foreign Domestic Movement in 1982, recruiting mostly Filipino and Caribbean women. Its successor, the Live-in Caregiver Program in 1992, and now, Canada’s Caregiver Program, have continued to target Filipino women more specifically. The nature of the program leaves the workers at the disposal and whim of their employers.

This is what appeases the middle and upper class Canadian families who can afford to employ a domestic worker, but at the expense of racialized women from Third World countries. Over 100,000 Filipino women have come in as domestic workers since the 1980s, and the government has continued to rely on the Caregiver Program as its defacto childcare program.

Quick Facts: Fees across Canada vary in each province and increasing cost of day care centres is a general trend in all provinces except Quebec and Manitoba Quebec’s day care centres monthly fees average to $152/ child below the age of 5.

On the other hand, Ontario’s fees average to $677/child.

SOURCE: STATISTICS CANADA, ”CHILDCARE IN CANADA, 2011”

The new changes to Canada’s current Caregiver Program stipulate, once again, definite barriers to a particular group of women’s development and genuine settlement into Canadian society. Touted as improvements towards permanent residency, the revised qualifications now require those in the program to apply under one of two streams: Caring for Children Pathway or Caring for People with High Medical Needs Pathway. They are also required to complete 1-2 years of post-secondary education in Canada. In addition, the government has capped the application for permanent residency at 2,750 for each stream.

These changes mark a blatant move to perpetuate the temporary status of Filipino women in Canada. Moreover, they are not guaranteed to be approved. The post-secondary requirement only serves to further filter the amount of approved applications.

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Women under this program who only earn minimum wage will send their money to support their own families. With their schedule remaining dependent on their employer, it is inevitably difficult for women to attend classes, let alone pay for everincreasing tuition fees for post-secondary education. What remains clear is that Canada continues to economically benefit from recruiting a pool of well educated, highly skilled women from Third World countries as cheap labour to meet the childcare needs for middle and upper class families.

In our struggle toward a genuine child care solution inclusive and accessible to everyone IN JANUARY 2015, the federal government made in Canada, the government continually fails effective the increase to Harper’s Universal to meet these demands time and time again.

Instead, they choose to roll out childcare Child Care Benefit--$160/month for children tax deductions and subsidies such as the under 6 and $60/month for children between recent upgrade of the Federal government’s 6 and 17 Universal Child Care Benefit, that do not make a difference in providing accessible public childcare for everyone. These reforms do not reflect the everyday realities or needs of working families in Canada.

Genuine childcare in Canada should come from the needs of the most marginalized communities. The violence and exploitation that women in our community experience under the Caregiver Program, along with the struggle to take care of our children highlight the fundamental problem of Canada’s Caregiver Program; as working women of colour continue to provide care but cannot find care for their own children, the Caregiver Program impedes the calls for national childcare and women’s overall struggle for equal rights within Canadian society. At the very least, the need to eliminate the Caregiver Program is a radical stance to dismantle successive programs built on the legacy of slavery and the subordination of racialized women. It opens up the possibilities of building genuine structures that support the development of all women and the full potential of the next generations.

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National STATEMENT

from the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada

Regressive rebranding of the Live-in Caregiver Program consolidates the neoliberal agenda for temporary, cheap, vulnerable, and disposable labour (originally released December 2014) Toronto, ON—With the Federal Government’s announcement of the recent changes to the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP), the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC) continue to challenge the inherently violent and abusive mechanisms of the program that, at the very core, has remained to regulate the temporariness, vulnerability, exploitation and oppression of the workers under it. In full effect since November 30, 2014, the changes have sent community members, the media and the general public into mixed and disarrayed conceptions of what the changes mean for workers, specifically Filipino women under the program, our community, and for working class families at large. Amidst a range of reactions, criticisms and opinions on the changes, the NAPWC stand firm that the program, and the so-called “improvements” therein, have always been a neoliberal tool to facilitate and profit from the gleaned fear and desperation of workers in the program.

The Filipino Canadian community cannot accept these as “improvements” as announcements of cosmetic changes are being branded as such. The Conservative Government’s Jason Kenney and Chris Alexander are playing games with the Filipino Canadian community and with the lives of those who are directly or indirectly affected by the LCP. Cecilia Diocson, Executive Director of the NAPWC, contends that “from Kenney to Alexander the push to hit the temporary workers can no longer be ignored.They have started to deliver the changes little by little using the usual tactics of keeping the workers quiet and compliant while pitting the advocates in the arena to fight against each other. This is very clear in our community’s diverse political positions and perspectives.” Diocson continued to assert that “as we have always looked at the bigger political picture of labour, capital and globalization, we know that Alexander’s position is not just hypocritical, it is part of an anti-worker neoliberal agenda through and through that pretends to protect the working class through a foreign workers program that mainly benefits capital.”

Under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), the revised program will funnel workers into two new pathways; namely the Caring for Children Pathway and the Caring for People with High Medical Needs Pathway. Work experience eligibility requirements for applicants under the childcare pathway must have at least two years of Canadian work experience as a home childcare provider, and applicants under the high medical needs pathway are required to fulfill a minimum of two years of Canadian work experience as a registered nurse, registered psychiatric nurse, licensed practical nurse, nurse aide, patient service associate, home support worker or similar healthcare provider occupations with a work permit.

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In addition, the new changes will also process applicants based on the Human Capital Criteria. This means that applicants will need to have a one-year completed Canadian post-secondary credential or equivalent foreign credential, and must undergo a language proficiency test of at least an intermediate level for childcare providers and a level ranging from initial intermediate to adequate intermediate for healthcare providers depending on the occupation. But since the 1980’s, highly-educated and highly-skilled caregivers have been carrying out domestic work, providing home childcare and care for the elderly, and people with disabilities and high medical needs. Under the previous rules, academic upgrading was not mandatory for caregivers fulfilling the requirements of the program.

The Human Capital Criteria does not bare any breadth of our community’s reality as these new requirements create new, more stringent and debilitating barriers. Completing a Canadian post-secondary credential for a minimum of one year is an economic nfeasibility for an overwhelming majority of workers under the program. At the tip of the iceberg, caregivers are often paid lower than the minimum wage and are already triply-taxed for being the main providers for their immediate and extended family members.

The changes also include capping the applications for permanent residency at a maximum total of 5,500 principal applicants. Each new pathway is allocated a maximum of 2,750 applications for permanent residency processing.

This provision is a clear gate-keeping maneuver to keep the majority of workers entering the country under temporary pretexts. Given the measly total of 5,500, these numbers will face further scrutiny and deterrence because merely applying for permanent residency does not automatically guarantee a successful processing. In essence, this will structurally yield less successful applications than the promised maximum of 5,500 applications being granted permanent residency. These specific changes have also been promoted as solutions to the backlog in the tens of thousands of permanent residency applications. This is the Federal Government’s administrative failure and their responsibility to clear-up.The applicants, their families and their communities

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What the government’s changes to the program have shown time and again is the clear intent to minimize and constrict the pathways to genuine and permanent immigration and maximize the impermanence and instability of workers coming through the program.

The applicants, their families and their communities should not have to suffer for the government’s negligence.

Finally, the changes have also made the live-in requirement optional so as to offer workers the choice to either live-in their employer’s home or work on a live-out basis. But because the work permits are employer-specific, the power to decide on a live-in or a live-out employment term still disproportionately belongs to the employer.

The social and economic impacts of the Live-in Caregiver Program has historically led to the deskilling, marginalization, exploitation and oppression of an entire community. What the government’s changes to the program have shown time and again is the clear intent to minimize and constrict the pathways to genuine and permanent immigration and maximize the impermanence and instability of workers coming through the program.

By critically analyzing these changes, we see that these do not meet our community’s demands for genuine permanent immigration, the successful economic and social development of caregivers, nor do they address the systemic and outright denial of the rights and entitlements of the workers and their families. What persists under new guises are the “rotating door” policies of immigration, the usage of the program as the defacto program for the absence of a universal childcare program and a sustainable healthcare system, and the conniving and divisive ploys to isolate the struggles borne out of the efforts of courageous women, workers and people of colour affected by the LCP. While the changes have essentially eliminated the Live-in Caregiver Program for the worse, the NAPWC asserts that the neoliberal policies that render workers impermanent, indentured and endangered are made more blatant by the new changes.

As progressive Filipino Canadians, the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada, along with our ally organizations, reiterate our calls to end the neoliberal agenda of labour casualization and flexibilization and the outright attack on workers’ rights, entitlements and the broader struggle for women’s equality and liberation. Acknowledging that these changes are by no means nothing we have not encountered as a community before, it is of grave importance now, more than ever, that the Filipino Canadian community, and other marginalized communities, continue to confront neoliberalism, call it for what it is and uphold the working-class women’s struggles and liberation at the fore of our collective efforts for social transformation. We will continue to struggle for the genuine settlement, successful integration, and the full participation and entitlements of the Filipino Canadian community as part of the broader working class struggle against neoliberalism in Canada.

Women’s liberation is non-negotiable!

Scrap the Temporary Foreign Worker Program!

Scrap the anti-woman, racist LCP! Universal childcare now!

Genuine immigration now!

Expose and oppose neoliberal policies!

Stop the neoliberal agenda of globalization!

End the contractualization and flexibilization of labour!

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As PWC Ontario and BC celebrate its 15 and 25 years of organizing this year, it is, once again, time for us to continue building on what we have learned from the past, share the wealth of knowledge that we have gained and acquired throughout theyears, and continue developing tools to reconceptualize the women’s movement from the perspective of Filipino Canadian women and their struggles. Thus, as we share the lessons from our experiences and our struggles for empowerment and liberation, we are realizing the strong sense of our history as a people, and the unwavering resistance of our women against all forms of oppression and exploitation.

The educational series is to be held almost every other Saturday from 5-7PM starting on April 4th. The workshops will provide a deeper understanding of the current situation of Filipino women in Canada and explore the legacy and continuing contributions of workingclass women in the overall struggle for social change.

They will also address the urgent need to continue and further strengthen Filipino women’s organizing towards the advancement of a genuine women’s movement 18

Filipino Women's Study series

From April 11 to july 18

Venue: magkaisa Centre Toronto, Ontario

MAY:

UPCOMING EVENTS

PWC Fundraising concert in collaboration with

Jewstice League

Venue & Date: To Be Announced

For More information Email: pwc-on@magkaisacentre.org Phone:

416.519.2553

THE MAGKAISA CENTRE Philippine women centre of ontario (pwc)

Formed in the year 2000 under PWC-BC, the Philippine Women Centre of Ontario is a community-based, registered non-profit organization that is instrumental in the struggle to build an empowered Filipino Canadian community through the advancement of the community’s genuine settlement and integration in Canadian society. PWC-ON’s program of educating, organizing, mobilizing and capacity-building of Filipino Canadian women, alongside the broader community, is fundamental in addressing barriers against the community’s full participation, which includes combating systemic racism, overcoming economic marginalization, making the Filipino youth count in Canada’s future, and enhancing Filipino women’s genuine equality, development and human rights. PWCON is also a member organization of Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC), which struggles for social change and transformation in Canadian society. And National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada, which stands as the national coordinating body that unites and guides the organizing work of its local chapters.

SIKLAB-Ontario (Advance and uphold the struggle of filipino canadian workers) SIKLAB Ontario (Advance and Uphold the Struggle of Filipino Canadian Workers/ Sulong Itaguyod Karapatan ng mga Manggagawang Pilipino sa Labas ng Bansa) is a community-based organization that has been steadfast in advancing and upholding the struggles of Filipino Canadian workers through their program of educating, organizing and mobilizing the community towards their just and genuine settlement and integration in Canadian society. By building the capacity of Filipino Canadian workers through their own self-organization and collective effort—as manifested in various community-based programs in the areas of education and research, political campaigns, advocacy, art and culture and community organizing and development—SIKLAB-ON strengthens Filipino Canadian workers as the leading force in building an empowered Filipino Canadian community.

ugnayan ng kabataang pilipino sa canada/filipino canadian youth alliance-ontario (ukpc/fcya-on) UKPC/FCYA-ON (Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance/Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada—Ontario) is a progressive Filipino Canadian youth and students organization that is committed to educating, organizing and mobilizing Filipino Canadian youth as a transformative and dynamic force that will nurture the new path towards the Filipino Canadian community’s just and genuine settlement and integration in Canadian society.

UKPC -ON continually leads various community-based projects aimed at breaking the cycle of the community’s marginalization. They have deepened their understanding of the community’s issues by leading a series of educational, research and arts and culture activities.

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NAtional Alliance of Philippine WOmen in Canada The National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC) was formed in 2002 as a mechanism for national coordination for education, research advocacy and capacity building to address the priority areas for the Filipino-Canadian community’s participation and involvement. A non-profit organization, it was borne out of the national consultation of Filipino-Canadian women in 1999 in Vancouver, B.C. It is the national coordinating body that unites and guides the works of the Philippine Women Centre (PWC) in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec.

WHY “Counterspin” ?

Between 2010 and 2011, the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC) held 3 national conferences entitled Counterspin (1,2, and 3). The conferences were organized to build a strong movement attentive to the immediate concerns of the Filipino Canadian community.

Our growing movement for genuine settlement and integration was a newly realized struggle for our community that was boldy embraced by our organizations.

Counterspin symbolized our role as progressive Filipino Canadians to advance a culture of resistance against our community’s continued marginalization in Canadian society. It is only fitting that we name our official newsletter at the Magkaisa Centre as “Counterspin”.

Our goal, aside from publishing updates on our organizations, is to provide critical analysis of the major concerns affecting our community and the broader Canadian community. It will also serve as a platform for our members to contribute their art, designs and writings that speak to the important issues experienced by women, youth and workers.

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Thank you Designers Mohana Sarmiento Charie Dawn Siddayao Earlydawn Jewelle Diaz Photographers Czarina Ortega Reuben Sarumugam Kebz Nerier Bryan Taguba

Volunteers & Supporters Cristina Nearing Yolyn Valenzuela Edelyn Pineda John Malto Ken Santos Al Bernardez

Writers & Editors Charie Dawn Siddayao Joy Sioson Charlene Sayo Mekhaila Menchavez Judy Bautista Mohana Sarmiento Bryan Taguba Kebz Nerier Bastian Leones Illustrators Kim Villagante Cover Page Illustration Patricia Guerrero

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in action

April 1, 2015 - UKPC/FCYA undergraduate students at York University and University of Toronto held a dialogue about how the CUPE 3902 and 3903 strike in the campuses affected their learning and experience as students. A discussion about the reasons why the strike happened followed the dialogue, connecting it the wider struggle of youth and students in Canada.

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April 4, 2015 - PWC-ON first general meeting of the year! UKPC-ON and SIKLABON members also in attendance to talk about the upcoming Filipino Women’s Studies Series workshops and the rest of the 2015 plans.

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