by Ysh Cabana

The parking lane along Progress Ave. was quite wide enough to congregate local Hip-Hop artists of Filipino descent from different parts of Toronto.  Dance crews walked it out with beats by the DJ. Graphic t-shirts stood along the walls of the garage that was bombed with stickers nascent of contemporary cultural identities. Emcees took to the front of the garage their verbal front while the youthful crowd matched the rhythms with hand gestures, almost as if scratching their own records.

Such was the scene in at the last summer block party organized by Filipinas Clothing Co. (FCC), an apparel brand owned by brothers Corwin, Harvey, Nikki, and Gino Agra. The one-off event succeeded in bringing together fans, Hip-Hop artists and even passersby to raise awareness of Filipino talent and collectivity.

Beyond his signature cigar hazed and bling-pimped videos, Fenaxiz rhymes with profundity yet grounded in reality. In “White Man’s Burden,” from his album Vintage released 2012, Fenaxiz educates his listeners about material history. Referencing the Rudyard Kipling poem of the same title, he reflects on the critical aspect of the history of his people and reclaims his personal story in Hip-Hop space:

“I was lost ‘til I found my inheritance
Now I know my worth, I control the world
And this rap ain’t even scratching the surface
Of our collective experience, my peoples
We gotta match our path with our purpose…”

For some time now, for Filipino-Canadians, “knowledge of self” has come from Hip-Hop. It is arguably part of a long standing Filipino culture which can also be traced in the Ilonggos’ romantic “binalaybay,” the Tagalogs’ “balagtasan,” and the Cebuanos’ “balak.”  Its productive grammatical process is vernacular yet stemming to the Filipino diaspora.

Seeds of Counterculture

Perceived internationally as the spawning ground of Hip-Hop, the district of Bronx in New York experienced an influx of new immigrants in the 1970s. The fragile low-income neighbourhoods were gradually deteriorating because of failed urban renewal policies. Mobility went to a decline for families who faced racist and classist subsidies in favour of suburban commuter residents, majority of whom were white.  Ironically, the diverse population in housing projects later became a major indicator of ‘authentic’ Hip-Hop culture. Until the end of the 1970s, Hip-Hop and rap music were primarily localized.

In Los Angeles, many working-class Filipinos were compelled to resettle in the outer districts, where the growth of West Bay Hip-Hop was witnessed in the 1980s. Through their sense of crisis caused by inclusive corporate development, the youth of this era had found ways of naming their experience. Emcees of Filipino descent were at the forefront of local Hip-Hop scene. Among the most recognized rappers were Bambu and Kiwi of Native Guns. Immersed in the long standing and ever evolving creation of the other elements of the culture—DJing, breakdancing and graffiti writing, Filipinos proved to be part of a thriving Hip-Hop generation that is parallel with the fundamental stage of Afro-diasporic narratives.

In fact, many second-generation Filipinos have, since then, been in a sense “blackened.” The sociocultural affinities of Filipinos with Blacks have been conceivable, especially if attributed with Hip-Hop culture. “Black Asians” has been a label that is even accepted by individuals themselves leaning on either positive or negative implications. Filipinos have a diverse culture that they can hardly be narrowed down into a homogenous stereotype. Such diversity affords an individual to associate themselves to another identity with either pride or self-denial.

For Scott Ramirez, Filipino Hip Hop in Toronto has started to experience its brighter days. While in university of which included a thesis project in his senior year, he went on a mission to record the impact of Hip-Hop culture as a channel of representation and a tool to facilitate knowledge of self. In his 2011 documentary “Flip Hop: Bridging the Gap,” the emcee posited that with the growing visibility of Filipino Hip-hop, solid community outlook is somehow achieved while its members are “instilled with a sense of cultural pride and confidence”

Tales from the Flipside

Wind back to 1995, Superskillz debuted as the first local stage to showcase Filipino talent among youth organized by university-based student groups. Though its heyday has past, it would usher waves of artists who saw connections outside their cliques as a way to tap into a larger audience, hence the so-called “Rise of Toronto” of more authentic Filipino in Hip Hop swag. The “Rise of Toronto” also meant the increasing number of immigrants who brought with them the current diversity which is the highest throughout the history of the city.

By 2000s, Filipino Hip-Hop in cosmopolitan Toronto was fueled by the beef that is defined by the rivalry between groups from east and west ends of the city. The solitudes of Mississauga and Scarborough were perceived to be dissected by the downtown core. The suburbs grew as preferred residential turfs of immigrants which in turn were not distinctly concentrated because of the labour market disadvantage under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

Young Filipinos were skewed as bolshies as tensions among new immigrants and assimilated youth who were born and raised in Canada increased. Figures from statistical research found the downward trend of success for the following generation of Filipinos. With the comparative value of the category of visible minority, the ethnic group were even shown as more likely who consistently underperformed in academics.

But regardless of the deplorable environment, Filipino youth were able to adapt Hip-Hop culture from the sole Hip-Hop Filipino station in Toronto Jump Off Radio (now defunct) to Bucc N Flvr representing Canada in an international street dance championships. To artists, it has a certain appeal to be an alternative space for transformation.

This was, in part, why the newcomer Agra brothers then jumpstarted Filipinas Clothing Co. The scope of FCC’s vision is more ambitious than doing rounds in the local events scene. It is a project that aims to “find avenues that will lead to positive changes in the Philippines and to less privileged citizens.” Thus, FCC, which also means for continuous change, asserts its potential in developing a critical lens that can be utilized to not only understand the composition of the world but more significantly to re-create it.

Forward to 2011, the first Flip Dot Battle Grounds took place in Toronto—“Flip” is an obvious play on Filipino while “Dot” is in reference to the city—as an outgrowth of a burgeoning format of Hip-Hop all over the world. Rap battle is a form of emceeing where artful insults are rhymed in acapella against each of the parties. Despite the hurls of loose meter, taunting and the lack of monetary compensation, rap battles are able to magnetize audience with the use of Internet channels to gain control of cultural capital. For instance, the Philippine-based FlipTop movement even exceeded by million views its predecessors America’s GrindTime, and Canada’s King of the Dot combined. Filipinos once again pushed the gameplay a notch higher. Only then, Flip Dot is decidedly worth more than watching.

FDBG “The Video That Sparked The FDBG Revolution In Toronto” (Prelude to “The Rise Of Toronto”)

Word Up

The unity that is espoused by FCC is probably best embodied by the supergroup Southeast Cartel, which has become the preferred brand by arguably the most popular emcees in Toronto including  Tagalog-rapping Franchizze and Abstrakt of Dos Amardos, Pipoy, Dagamuffin, Biggz, Raygee and Bustarr of Sundaloz, Rydeen, and Mississauga-based Da Barkadaz. Southeast Cartel combined conventional views of Filipino with improvisation of language, either native, second language or both.

However, ifthe emergent Flip Dot culture is any indication, organizing Filipino youth still has a long way to go. Fenaxiz  speaks sincerely again in “The Real Toronto” :

“The good, the bad, the beauty, the ugly
The young, the old, the smart, the dummy
The peace, the war, the poor, the wealthy
The hoods, the ‘burbs, the sick, the healthy
The love, the hate, the true, the fake
The strong, the weak, the asleep, the awake
The success, the hustle, the stress, the struggle
It is what it is and this the real Toronto.”

In the end, it lures us to a calm compromise with “what it is,” instead of challenging the norm with what is to be done.

The challenge to forge unity among the Filipino youth through Hip-Hop is to bring forth new materials circumventing resistance against the standard notions of culture. While the more popular analyses on Hip-Hop’s origins date it back to the rhetoric of oppression caused by racial segregation, it is the understanding the axis of classes that strengthens it as a tool to deepen the lyrics and facilitate real human relations between different identities.

Perhaps the FCC block party was a swarm of Flip Dot’s finest. But for it to be a more durable performance is to spit back from Hip Hop roots of principled resistance, to put the cipher into plain text: “Makibaka! Huwag Matakot!” (Dare to struggle! Never be afraid!)

By the May 1st Movement

When he arrived at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport 3 years ago, Santiago Escobar saw a large group of people who caught his attention.  From their clothing, resembling the traditional clothing of indigenous peoples of Central America, he assumed they were Latin Americans.  Having just arrived in Canada on a work permit himself, his curiosity got the better of him and he went to speak to people in the group.

“It was not easy to strike up a conversation because they were intimidated, one of them told me they are farm workers and they were forbidden to talk to strangers,” said Escobar.  “When I asked him who had been forbidden this, he chose to keep walking and our conversation ended there. I felt a lot of mistrust and fear from the worker.”

Escobar now works with the Agricultural Workers Alliance in Virgil, Ontario providing services and advocacy for migrant workers there.  Every year, tens of thousands of migrant workers from some 80 countries including Mexico, Guatemala, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and the Philippines arrive in Canada on a temporary, seasonal basis. Over the last decade, the number of these workers that enter into Canada has increased from 100,000 to 250,000.

Often working for minimum wage in agricultural fields, hotels, restaurants, slaughterhouses, factories, and households as caregivers, these workers also must pay for their flights, insurance, and housing while most receive no payment for overtime nor rest during the holidays.  Moreover, since their job security is primarily at the discretion of the employer, many workers endure further hardships so as to not run the risk of being sent back.

A worker who chose to identified only as Francisco said “fortunately the members of the Support Centre help by taking us to the medical clinics, because if you notify the Patron (master), you run with the risk of being returned to Mexico, as the Patron is not interested in having people sick or not produce what each worker must produce.  Here we come to work and if you cannot work then you are on the next flight back”.

In addition, these workers must pay the numerous income, retirement, social security and workplace safety taxes that a regular worker would pay despite the fact that they are often denied access to many of these benefits. Edward, a Jamaican migrant worker who has been participating in the program for almost 2 decades, was denied Parental Benefits because he did not apply during the time required by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada.  ”I do not understand, why after working 19 years within this program, paying all my taxes, my application is denied, no one informed me about the time required, here in Canada nor in Jamaica”.  With this erratic weather, many of the crops have been devastated in southern Ontario.  As a result, hundreds of workers have been sent back without any access to the Employment Insurance that they pay into, or any of the compensation that Ontario farmers receive from the government.

Despite these exploitative conditions, these women and men take out personal loans  to apply and endure in order to earn money for the families they leave behind.  In many of the ‘sender’ countries, the governments have struck these ‘labour export’ agreements with countries like Canada as a way to address high unemployment domestically, as well as a way to bring money into the country in the form of remittances.  In the Philippines for example, remittances which come primarily from overseas Filipino workers account for over 9% of the Gross Domestic Product.

In addition, these governments have continued a reckless subservience to domestic economic policies which favour transnational firms over the people and local producers.

“Before the NAFTA treaty [the North American Free Trade Agreement between Canada, the US and Mexico - ed.], I cultivated my corn fields and had more work in Mexico” said Magdalena Perez, an agricultural worker. “If you invested $1000 you would at least get back $1800. Currently, you can’t even recover $500 because it is cheaper to buy imported U.S. corn,” said Perez. Heavily subsidized US corn was allowed to enter the Mexican market as part of NAFTA.

Over the past year or so, the work done by the Agricultural Workers Alliance/ United Food and Commercial Workers and migrant advocacy organizations such as Justicia for Migrant Workers and MIGRANTE have raised the profile of the plight of these workers and the conditions of their super-exploitation. Tragically, this has not lead to greater protections as evidence by recent deaths of workers including the 11 killed in Hampstead while being driven in unsafe conditions, as well as the deaths of Paul Roach and Ralston White, two Jamaican workers who died while attempting to fix a pump for a vinegar vat at the apple orchard where they worked.

Currently in Ontario, there exists a legal framework that inherently places these workers at risk and makes them vulnerable to abuse and exploitation as well as injury or even death.  In 2011, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled with the Ontario government denying migrant workers the rights to join or form union despite the International Labour Organizations ruling that this constituted a breach of labour and human rights.

While labour organizations are beginning a campaign to address the issues of workplace rights and dignity, the May 1st Movement and its affiliates reaffirm that the safety and rights of the most vulnerable set of workers including migrants must be on the top of the agenda. Following the cue from the Fraser Institute’s recommendations to shift immigration further towards this labour import model where citizenship and status are used as tools to divide and discipline workers, the Conservative government are openly floating schemes that would incentivize further exploitation by allowing employers to pay migrant workers 15% less than the minimum wage. Not only is this a brazen attack on what little rights migrants workers have, but it is also setting the stage for a pitting of workers – migrant vs. residents – against each other for the withering pool of jobs.  As we sink deeper into this global crisis in capitalism, this will surely feed xenophobic and racist scapegoating in the same way it has in Europe.

We must demand the end to the distinct categorization and regulation of migrant labour designed to keep them in precarious conditions, the guaranteeing of the social benefits that they are entitled and pay into, the right to organize and associate, and clear pathways to residency.  By fighting for the rights of these workers, we are also fighting to ensure that no government is able to lower the bar for all of us.

While fighting for these necessary reforms to alleviate the condition of these workers, must also be clear that this international phenomenon of labour import and export – the trading and use of women and men as cheap, disposable labour – is an inhumane practice that lines the pockets of the companies and governments involved, while keeping countries poor and workers subjugated.

by Tony Couto

In the immediate aftermath of the July 16 shootings on Danzig St. in Scarborough, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford took the airwaves on AM640 and in his predictably racist and idiotic style pledged “to find out how our immigration laws work” so he could expel those convicted of gun crimes in Toronto: “I don’t care if you’re an immigrant or not, if you get caught with a gun, I want to find out the legalities of are you allowed to stay here or are you not… I’m sure it falls under some sort of immigration law.”

Ford’s remarks would have been laughable were they not echoing the disturbing trend of the Federal government to link crime (speciously) to immigration.  Take for instance Federal Bill C-43, what is being called the “Faster Removal of Foreign Criminals Act”.  If passed, this legislation would allow for the deportation of any non-citizen who has received a sentence of six months or more for any crime carrying a ten-year maximum sentence, beefing up the Conservatives’ anti-immigrant and anti-refugee arsenal of laws.

Ford the anti-tax crusader also seized upon the Danzig incident as an opportunity to express his opposition to social programming: “I don’t believe in these programs – I call them hug-a-thug programs.”  So, the users of community arts and sports programs in Toronto’s designated “priority neighbourhoods” are all thugs?  Ford continued, “[these programs] haven’t been very productive in the past” – arguing through assertion not reason –“and I don’t know why they are continuing with them.”  Ford routinely uses the popular appeal of his anti-tax cause – a major factor that got him elected – to attack social spending and attack unions. But when it comes to police spending, however, Ford’s City Hall has no problems throwing billions into the law-and-order abyss.

The official police budget for 2012 was previously projected at $936 million; but as Ford began demanding of Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty extra funding for police as advisor close to Ford revealed that that Toronto is already spending closer to $1.2 billion on policing. On July 23, McGuinty technically declined Ford’s request for $5-10 million to fund new officers, but he did the next best thing for the pro-cop agenda by pledging to permanently fund the so-called Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy (TAVIS) to the tune of $5 million a year.  McGuinty made himself more palatable to the public than Ford by paying some lip service to social programming and taking a more “balanced approach” to gun violence. But McGuinty’s announcement for the fast tracking of $500,000 through the so-called Safer and Vital Communities Program is not a counter-balance to the more-cops approach: it’s a extension of it.

To receive grants through this program, organizations and agencies must be willing to work with the police.  This funding criterion will exclude all those organizations that acknowledge police brutality and profiling/carding in the “priority neighbourhoods” as a serious problem and are unwilling to collaborate with the police as a condition for the provision of social services.

While in Toronto for his July 24 meeting with Mayor Rob Ford at the ‘Gun Summit’, in addition to talking up Bill C-43, Harper defended his general ‘law and order’ agenda: defending elements of his Omnibus Crime Bill that judges have deemed unconstitutional or in violation of the Charter; and promoting a private member’s bill, C-394 (Criminal Organization Recruitment), recently introduced by Conservative MP Parm Gill of Brampton-Springdale. Gill recently said of the proposed legislation that “Criminal organizations today are targeting youth under the age of 12 and as young as 8 years-old to participate in criminal activity… There is a dire need to protect our communities from those who prey on innocent and vulnerable individuals.”  What’s objectionable to this bill is not only the provision of the police and the courts with yet another law to criminalize youth; but its emphasis on petty criminal enterprises (would anything but a petty criminal enterprise recruit an 8 year-old?) when there exist much bigger players behind the guns and drugs game.

In a joint public statement from Toronto-based Filipino and Latino community organizations concerning events in the wake of the Danzig shootings, Pablo Vivanco of Barrio Nuevo raised this exact point: “We also need to start asking where these guns are coming from, who is bringing them into this City and why.  These youth are not making or smuggling guns, so we need to acknowledge that there are bigger things at play and target the real players in this morbid game.”  In this whole debate on gun crime, the giant elephant in the middle of the room that the media, police, and politicians are refusing to acknowledge is the role played by larger criminal syndicates – nothing short of a conspiracy of silence.

The influence of organized crime in Canada has been hitting the headlines in Quebec in recent months with a public inquiry exploring the links between the construction industry, the mafia, and Quebec’s political parties.  The assassination of a series of major mob figures in Montreal has also in forced the issue of organized crime back into the mainstream.  But are illegal donations to political parties and unfair public contracts the worst of it for the mob these days?

Then there’s the vast network built up by the Hell’s Angels over the last decade.  It’s no secret that the Hell’s Angels – on the surface an all-white biker club – fronts for a large criminal network embedded within and around it.

Considering the very existence of large criminal enterprises like these, it isn’t a quantum leap to the arrive at the conclusion that there must be greater forces behind the guns and drugs flooding into and fracturing working-class communities in cities like Toronto.  Yet it’s in our communities where the policing and criminalization is concentrated and where the violent scramble for market share plagues youth gang culture.

That impoverished racialized communities end up experiencing the bulk of the violence should come as no surprise when we analyze the socio-economic reality we’re left with: a shrinking pool of jobs for youth and their parents; rising tuition fees of post-secondary education (not to mention the alienating experience of racist curricula and administrators in high schools); rising costs of living; cuts to social programming; and the broad criminalization, profiling, and discrimination of racialized youth that push many out of the job market to begin with. Now throw into this mix of desperate circumstances the prospect of making a quick buck in the petty drug trade made possible by larger criminal syndicates reaching down into “priority neighbourhoods” for candidates to move their product, and what you get is a violent scramble for market share and domination. The big gangsters are getting paid behind the scenes regardless of the violence happening on the ground; and this violence gives the cops a cause for crusade, the politicians an election issue, and big capitalists a sense of security that the armed apparatus of the state is getting stronger and stronger at a time when the masses of people are getting poorer and more desperate.

The tragic shootings on Danzig St. on July 16 should definitely have us asking questions about violence in our communities and searching for solutions. But these questions, and the answers that must follow, are not the ones being posed by Rob Ford, Dalton McGuinty, Bill Blair, and Stephen Harper, these enemies of the people who are exploiting the Danzig tragedy to beef up police forces; peddle their racist, anti-immigrant, anti-people, and anti-social policies.  These policies are not solutions to gun violence and crime: they’re desperate measures to stabilize a decaying capitalist society by dividing and containing the people.

The question that remains is how much the law enforcement agencies and politicians actually know about the relationship of larger criminal enterprises to the guns and drugs in our communities.  Just for the record, that’s not an appeal to power: it’s an indicment of it.

Press Release

Migrante Canada is deeply saddened by the death of four Filipino migrant workers caused by tragic vehicular mishap in Innisfail, Alberta.

The migrant workers were on-board a van late Sunday night, March 4, when an SUV travelling in the opposite direction hit the van head-on, killing driver Anthony Castillon, 35, and three passengers – Joey Mangonon, 35, Josefina Velarde, 52, and still-unnamed 39-year-old Filipina.

Another female victim, a 28-year-old Josephine Tamondong who suffered serious injuries, was brought to a local hospital, and is now reportedly out of danger.

The SUV driver, Tyler James Stevens, 29, of Cochrane, Alberta, was unhurt, and is now facing multiple charges including four counts of impaired driving causing death.

“We extend our sincerest condolences to the families of the victims. We know how sad it is to lose someone in the family. Our thoughts are with you during this difficult time,” said Migrante Canada Secretary General Christopher Sorio. 

Many Filipino migrant workers in Alberta are employed under the Government of Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program [TFWP]. According to reports, Castillon, Mangonon, Velarde, and Tamondong had worked at Coast Edmonton Plaza Hotel in downtown Edmonton, Alberta. The unnamed victim had worked in a local cleaning agency. 

“We call on the Philippine Embassy and Consulate officials in Canada to provide all necessary support to the victims’ families in the Philippines, including repatriation of the bodies and administering what’s due to them under the provisions of Overseas Workers Welfare Administration [OWWA] and the Magna Carta for Overseas Filipino Workers [OFWs],” said Sorio. 

“It’s the responsibility of the Philippine government to provide full support to all Filipino nationals particularly in this kind of circumstances.” 

Reference:

Christopher Sorio

Phone: 416-828-0441

Email: [email protected] 

by Syed Hussan

A new immigration Bill, C-31, proposed in Parliament on Thursday, February 16, will take out significant sections of the refugee system and give immigration enforcement and police increased powers to arrest non-citizens.

Bill C-31 rolls in provisions from Bill C-49 and Bill C-4, the so-called human smuggling bill which allows immigration officers to designate people arriving in Canada and applying for refugee status as ‘irregular arrivals’. This can be any 2 or more claimants from any country.

Once designated as ‘irregular arrivals’, asylum seekers must be put in prison, without a warrant, and without a review process. They have no access to an appeal process, an assessment of risk on deportation, ability to apply for status on humanitarian grounds. Even, if these asylum seekers get refugee status, they cannot apply for permanent residence or sponsorship for five years during which time their refugee status could be arbitrarily revoked.

Separately, the Immigration Minister can deem any country, ‘safe’. These will likely be countries that Canada has trade relations with, countries like Hungary, Colombia and Mexico. Once deemed safe, asylum seekers from these countries will essentially be denied most processes, and unable to gain adequate legal representation or the right of appeal.

Bill C-31 also gives Immigration Canada the power to arrest any non-citizen without due process and hold them until they decide to revoke their citizenship and deport them, and all non-citizens, including tourists, study and work permit holders and permanent residents, can be forced to submit biometric data, including retina scans and DNA scans.

Under Bill C-31, the government can revoke the citizenship of people who have been granted refugee status. Once they have done so, even if they have already been granted permanent residency, their status can be revoked. In doing so, the entire Refugee system has been made temporary so that even gaining permanent residency cannot ensure continued status in the country.

The potential changes introduced by Bill C-31 are part of a series of drastic changes to Canada’s immigration system that are making the entire system exclusionary.

On January 18, Canada launched a “Parent and Grandparent Super Visa” and announced that 25,000 parents and grandparents will gain permanent residency in 2012, a 60% increase from 2010.

While some immigrants rejoiced, hoping that this would finally mean reuniting with family members separated for decades, a closer reading tells a different story.

The Parent & Grandparent Supervisa is a 10 year visa, under which elderly family members of immigrants can come live in the country for two years at a time to visit their children and grandchildren.

To get the Supervisa, sponsors must meet minimum income requirements and pay for medical bills of the visiting family members who will not be allowed to access Canadian healthcare. What used to be a permanent immigration system, where immigrants could sponsor their parents and grandparents to come in to the country and get citizenship, has been replaced by a temporary immigration system where parents can visit, but not stay.

The current backlog of parents and grandparents waiting to be processed is 165,000 – allowing in 25,000 people barely makes a dent in this long line of separated families. Also, at the same time as the Supervisa was introduced and the record number of acceptance numbers announced, a 2 year ban on all new applications was placed. In other words, right now, no one can apply to sponsor their families in to Canada. Whether the ban will actually be lifted is a question only time can answer.

In addition to the limited and temporary Supervisas, the Canadian government has increased restrictions on the spousal sponsorship system – the other end of the family reunification part of the immigration system.

Until recently, a Canadian citizen who married a non-citizen, could sponsor their spouse and ensure that they get full citizenship. Not any longer.

Under regulations titled ‘Conditional-Permanent Residency’, if a couple has known each other for less than two years, then the non-citizen spouse gets conditional citizenship for 2 years. After the 2 years, Citizenship and Immigration Canada will investigate the relationship and then decide if the relationship is genuine and if full citizenship can be granted.

This regulation puts the non-citizen spouse in a position where leaving an abusive marriage is a matter of giving up citizenship.

As the total number of permanent residents in Canada as a percentage of the total population drops each year, the number of temporary migrants continues to grow. This is not just in the case of increased temporary workers but rather temporary visas in the refugee and family reunification system.

It is essential that immigrants, refugees, and those who believe in an immigration system that prioritizes family reunification and humanitarianism join forces before it is too late. Visit nooneisillegal.org to see how you can stop this Bill.

by Gwendolyn Longid (Cordillera People’s Alliance) – 9 September, 2011

Defying the approaching Typhoon Mina on August 26th, a dozen community activists and grassroots journalists from the Sagada region of Mountain Province in the Cordillera, Philippines came together for a day-long seminar on the foundations of community radio broadcasting.  The workshop was attended by members of the Sagada Environmental Guides Association (SEGA), Sagada Genuine Guides Association (SAGGAS), the Cordillera Highland Agricultural Resource Management Program  (CHARMP), the Montañosa Research and Development Center (MRDC), and the Cordillera Disaster Response and Development Services (CorDis RDS), along with Radyo Sagada staff and volunteers.  The activity was conducted through the initiative of Cordillera Peoples Alliance of Mountain Province and CorDis RDS, and was facilitated by Steve Da Silva of BASICS Community News Service, a people’s media organization from Canada that has a radio program on CHRY 105.5. in Toronto, Ontario, along with a regularly produced newspaper.  BASICS carried out the workshop as part of a project of their own known as the School of People’s Journalism.

The day-long seminar was geared towards providing basic skills in community broadcasting for the various sectors and organizations in Sagada.  The day’s activities covered technical aspects as well as the principles of community radio, with an emphasis on what distinguishes a people’s media organization from commercial radio. Da Silva from BASICS stressed that “a community media organization that doesn’t recognize that its heart and soul is the community – is the people – will very quickly find itself looking like commercial radio or dying out.  If the corporate media served the people’s true interests and addressed their needs, then we wouldn’t need to create a people’s media apparatus.”

The participants engaged in various worshops and formats throughout the day. Gareth Likigan and Ben Calpi of SAGGAS role-played a mock interview with a student who does part time work as a tourist guide to meet ends meet.  Others simulated a round table discussion focused on Sagada as a tourist hotspot. Brenda and Gaodan Angway of SEGA did a review on Sagada culture done by Brenda of Radyo Sagada and Gaodan Angway of SEGA.  All participants were challenged in the art of improvisation – such as through simulated phone-in questions – a feature of radio broadcasting that sets it apart from other forms of media.

Through the activity, the organizers hoped to encourage more organizations to take on time slots at the recently formed Radyo Sagada station. The SAGGAS intend to have a radio show which delves on environmental issues.  The SEGA has so far shared in the weekly program on solid waste management and regular volunteer work as anchor and newscasters at the radio.

Steve da Silva of BASICS Community News Service spent over a month in Mountain Province researching people’s struggles and indigenous struggles for self-determination against foreign mining companies and militarization.  Da Silva, who was in the Philippines for the 4^th International Assembly of the International League of People’s Struggles in Manila in early July, also joined Radyo Sagada for a series of interviews discussing some of the links between Canadian imperialism and the Philippines.  From August 23-25, da Silva joined hosts Ma Karl, Habibi, and others for a series of back-to-back-to-back interviews, one on Canada’s notorious record of genocidal policies towards indigenous peoples in Canada, which continue up to the present day. “If the Canadian state can carry out a genocide of indigenous peoples in the present day right in its own country, then how do you think Canada is going to operate abroad when it confronts other indigenous or colonized peoples, such as the Igorot people here in the Cordillera.” Another discussion dealt with the widespread human rights violations associated with the overseas operation of Canadian mining companies, which also operate in the Cordillera, such the corporation Ivanhoe, which is heavily invested in Benguet-based Lepanto Mining.

On the final day, the interview covered the links between Canadian ‘development’ aggression around the world and the migrant worker programs in Canada that so many Filipinos and others around the world are trying to get in to.  The conversation drew attention to how the policies of neoliberal globalization which displace peoples from their homelands create large pools of cheap labour for imperialist countries like Canada. The programs discussed included Canada’s Live-In Caregivers, the Seasonal Agriculatural Workers, and Temporary Foreign Workers.

The torrential rains that began to fall at the day’s end did not put a damper on the event, which ended on a high note with a lively discussion on the challenges but necessity of building a genuine community media organization from the ground up and through the people.

Writing and researching for BASICS Community News Service while in Mountain Province, Steve da Silva has a number of pieces coming out on the Cordillera that will be published at www.basicsnews.ca throughout the month of September 2011.

By SK & MB

In the capitalist system labour is viewed as yet another commodity that can be traded and exploited. Wages are paid for labour-power and hours worked but in some circumstances, like the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SWAP), contracted wage agreements and working conditions are not a guarantee.

As participants in UFCW Canada’s Youth Internship Program we were part of a contingent who went to Simcoe, Ontario to learn more about the SAWP. We visited farms, talked to workers and farm owners, with an objective of investigating the issues and introducing workers to the Agricultural Workers Alliance (AWA) action centre in Simcoe.

As a union contingent we organized a BBQ to celebrate the workers struggles and get more information into the hardships of the work, abuses in the SAWP program and generally agitate workers to organize themselves and talk about their working-conditions. We wanted to highlight workers’ value to the region, and to bridge the gap between the migrant workers and the larger community. The information in this article is based on our investigations.

Some of the issues we uncovered while visiting workers at their homes, meeting them in the community and visiting their workplaces are how employer friendly the program is. Some of the daily abuses include:
workers being frequently repatriated for demanding their rights. No enforced third-party regulatory system for health, safety, and labour regulations. Workers pay their employers rent for housing that is usually substandard and overcrowded.
Stories from the workers we met show that we cannot depend on individual farm owners to ‘do the right thing.’ We need to create a system of fairness where standards are regulated and monitored. Migrant workers are not familiar with Canadian laws and are given no paths to educate themselves. Through investigation, we discovered many workers who took home only $5 of the $10.25 per hour they are told they will receive.

Furthermore, many of the Latin American workers are not fully confident in the English language which means they can’t read WSIB and caution signs in their workplaces. It requires a huge effort for them to educate themselves on the rules, regulations and rights of agricultural workers in Canada.

When a worker attempts to educate themselves, or inquires about the many deductions on their paychecks, they are putting their jobs at risk. When workers turn to organizations that will assist them with their issues consulates from countries like Jamaica and Mexico often warn workers that the people at the Agricultural Workers Alliance (AWA) are dangerous and only intend to take their money. In reality the AWA helps workers apply for the benefits they contribute to and also assists the workers with ESL courses so they can better understand their rights. This program is further evidence of the growing systemic pattern where the race to the bottom is both legislated and supported by governments. Workers are easily replaced by the millions of other workers all over the world who are just waiting to be picked, and are just as quickly disposed of. If an individual proves to be vocal, entitled, or motivated they are easily replaced and forgotten.

The union compares the SAWP to the indentured labour practices of the 19th century but even worse in this program there is no pathway to citizenship. Agricultural work is not valued by the Canadian immigration system and when workers in the program apply to immigrate they find that the point system values education, and capital for investment, not the time and sacrifice farm workers have already made. The fight against the current SAWP program is a fight for good jobs and for sustainable communities. There are organizations fighting to improve standards and to eliminate the systemic circumstances that allow violations to occur.

Good jobs in sustainable communities that respect workers are rare in most sectors and employees must race to the bottom simply to ensure they are employed and hopefully in a slightly better financial situation.  Organizations like SAME (Students Against Migrant Exploitations), AWA (Agricultural Workers Alliance), Migrante, and the Workers Action Centre are all part of this battle for improved standards. We encourage you to find out more about these organizations and assist them in their struggles for justice.

By Meg M.

On February 27, 2011 Women United Against Imperialism (WUAI) hosted the community forum Confronting Precarious Work in the Era of Imperialism to educate and organize around the theme of precarious work for the upcoming International Women’s Day events that took place in early March.

Petrolina Cleto began the forum by sharing her poem titled “A Place” with the group. Her words set the tone for the discussion ahead; about the sacrifices women make under global imperialism, as they migrate to foreign places for their families’ survival and the love behind migrant women’s work. Cleto explained, “working with the community of women migrant workers in Toronto has deepened my understanding of forced migration and the effects of imperialism on the majority of women in the world today.  I now clearly see their courage. I also see what is often taken for granted… the great love with which they do their sacrifices, is also what they give to the people they work for.”

The following speaker, Brigitte Dang-ay, shared with the group that she arrived in Canada in 2006. She has since been separated from her four children in the Philippines while caring for Canadian families as a temporary foreign worker under Canada’s Live-In Caregiver Program (LCP).  LCP caregivers are required to complete 24 months of documented, full-time, live-in domestic work within four years of arrival in Canada. On completion of this requirement they become eligible to apply as permanent residents to Canada. Although it takes great courage for caregivers under the LCP to speak out on the vulnerabilities they face at work due to their precarious migration status, Dang-ay gave voice to the difficulties many women migrant workers experience and presented a powerful account of the impact of global imperialism on her life. Read more…