CASJ story presented at international forum

CASJ story presented at international forum

TORONTO – The story of how the shooting death of Jeffrey Reodica in the hands of a Toronto police officer has galvanized the Filipino community to courageously act, mobilize and organize for social justice, was heard at a recent international conference held in this city.

The story was told of how the community’s involvement led to the establishment of the Justice for Jeffrey Coalition – composed of various organizations and individuals that supported the Reodica family in the search for truth and justice — and how it finally culminated in the formation of the Community Alliance for Social Justice (CASJ) – a broader coalition fighting for social justice issues in the Filipino community.

The CASJ story, titled, The Road to Empowerment: Moving from Crisis to Community Capacity Building, was presented in a workshop during the international conference, CommunityCrisis Response: Looking Through a Cultural Lens, held June 9-10 at Metro Hall, in Toronto.

The workshop presentation consisted of two parts: a statistical profile of the Filipino community, presented by Philip Kelly, PhD., Associate Professor at the Department of Geography, York University; and, the narrative was presented by Mila Astorga-Garcia, managing editor of The Philippine Reporter, and CASJ Research Coordinator.

The conference as a whole looked at how crisis of different kinds impacted on communities, as well as how community crisis interventions can be done with cultural competence, or in a culturally appropriate way.

The story of the Justice for Jeffrey Campaign, and the subsequent emergence of the Community Alliance for Social Justice, were seen by community crisis practitioners as a model by which a community — in this case, the Filipino community — has responded valiantly to its own crisis by taking action and organizing into a formidable social justice group through capacity building.

The intervention by the City of Toronto’s community crisis team, on the other hand, was seen by many of those involved in the community campaign and coalition building, as culturally appropriate so as to support and enhance the capacity building efforts of the community in dealing with its own crisis, and its broader social justice concerns.

In his statistical profile of the Filipino community, Kelly characterized Filipinos as highly qualified and culturally prepared due to their excellent credentials — over half have a university or college education, and most have high levels of fluency in the English language; that they a re highly active in the labour force. And yet, their incomes are, on average, well below immigrants as a whole, and even further below the average for the Canadian workforce in general. Also, Filipinos lack political clout, as indicated in their lack of representation and participation in the political process.

And then, against this scenario, a crisis befalls the community, with the death on May 24, 2004 of Jeffrey Reodica after he was shot by a Toronto police officer. This incident shocked and enraged not only the Reodica family, but also the otherwise docile, polite, peaceful and fun-loving Filipino community.

The incident also served as a wakeup call for the Filipino community to take action on broader issues that have placed them in their marginalized state. Coming together, supporting each other, and being able to deal with its own issues through collective action; linking with other ethnic communities; and making its voice heard through participation – all these have served as a powerful healing and empowering process for a community that takes pride in its history and identity as a capable, resilient, and freedom-loving people.