CASJ marks milestones

CASJ marks milestones

TORONTO–The Community Alliance for Social Justice (CASJ) marks significant milestones in research, education, and advocacy during the past two years (2012-2013) following its successful first Leaders’ Speakers Series at the Leaders’ Gala featuring Minister of Multiculturalism Flor Marcelino in 2011, according to a report on its achievements issued by CASJ’s Executive Committee.

CASJ is a broad alliance of community groups and individuals committed to advancing social justice through research, advocacy, education, and community action.

As it reports on the achievements of the past two years, it also announces the projects  in the forthcoming year, when CASJ marks its 10th anniversary, also the 10th anniversary of the death of Filipino youth Jeffrey Reodica in the hands of Toronto Police, and for whom CASJ strongly participated in the community campaign for justice led by the Reodica family.   Among its planned activities are a youth debate; the launch of its collaborative research projects; and the resumption of its Leaders’ Speaker Series to be held in a Leaders’ Gala.

In research, its major achievements are:

• The publication of CASJ’s  research on deprofessionalization in the groundbreaking book, Filipinos in Canada: Disturbing Invisibility,  (Eds: Roland Sintos Coloma, Bonnie McElhinny, Ethel Tungohan, John Paul C. Catungal, and Lisa M. Davidson) published by University of Toronto Press in 2012, which is now being used as basic reference in Canadian universities, media and community.

The research, titled, “Filipino Immigrants in the Toornto Labour Market: Towards an Understanding of Deprofessionalization,” authored by Philip F. Kelly, Mila Astorga-Garcia, Enrico Esguerra, and CASJ, is Chapter 3 of the impressive 450-page volume, which contains 20 other scholarly works by academic and community-based researchers.  The book itself is a milestone as it is the first wide ranging edited collection of research on Filipinos in Canada.

CASJ’s contribution is based on its full-length study, titled Explaining the Deprofessionalized Filipino: Why Filipino Immigrants Get Low-paying Jobs in Toronto,  by the same authors, published in October 2009 by the prestigious CERIS (Centre of Excellence for Research on Immigration and Settlement)– The Ontario Metropolis Centre.

• The implementation of the research “Filipino Youth Transitions Canada” or FYTIC, a national study which looks into the experiences of second generation Filipino youth,  as they struggle to seek their place in Canadian society.

Past research by Statistics Canada has shown that the children of Filipino immigrants have one of the lowest rates of university graduation and some of the highest rates of drop-out from high school. It seems that, despite their talents, some Filipino-Canadian youth may be getting channeled into the same kinds of deprofessionalized labour market positions as their parents were.

The objective of this project is to examine the roots of these inter-generational outcomes.The study is based on qualitative interviews with key informants from the Filipino community, focus group discussions, and surveys of respondents aged 18-30 in the 2nd or 1.5 generations (i.e. those born in Canada to immigrant parents, and those who immigrated during childhood).

The project has conducted case studies in Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg and Hamilton. This will allow researchers to examine outcomes in cities with diverse histories of Filipino settlement, and in quite different neighbourhoods across these cities. In each city, the project will have a collaborative relationship with a local community organization. The project was created as a collaboration between CASJ, York University, and other organizations that participated in the surveys and focus groups in cities outside the Greater Toronto Area. This research should help us understand how Filipino identity is related to economic opportunities, how parental employment is reproduced in the life chances of their children, and how different immigrant settlement sites shape the next generation in important ways.

• GATES Project

CASJ is involved in an ongoing research called “Gabriela Transitions Experience Survey,” or GATES,  which gathers information about the experiences of Filipino women who are making the transition to life as Canadian permanent residents after completing the Live-in Caregiver Program.  The results of this study will be used to imporove services for the community, raise awareness, and advocate for the welfare of women and their families.

This study is nationwide in scope, and data are being collected in the cities that have the greatest numbers of LCP immigrants.  So far, surveys and focus groups have been conducted in the Greater Toronto Area, Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. The GATES project is a collaboration between Gabriela Ontario, Ryerson University, York University, Migrante Canada, and CASJ.

Both FYTIC and GATES will be completed in 2014, and results will be published and presented in academic and community forums and conferences, and used to advocate for the welfare of youth, and women who came through the LCP. These two studies, in varying stages of development, have already been presented in academic conferences and workshops in Toronto and other cities.  They will be presented to the community specifically during the launch of the research results in 2014.  CASJ recognizes that scientific evidence-based research is a tool to strengthen advocacy efforts toward policy and program changes to improve social well-being.

Education and advocacy work in broader social justice issues:

• CASJ recently participated in an education and advocacy campaign, titled, “Women’s Human Rights: ‘Comfort Women of WWII in Asia;”  as a partner of Toronto ALPHA (Association for Learning and Preserving the History of WWII in Asia); Canada ALPHA Educational Fund; Canada Museum for Human Rights; and New College, University of Toronto.  Philippine-based Lola Fidencia David, an 87 year old survivor of the sexual slavery system of the Japanese military during WWII was invited to speak during a church service; before a total audience of 800 faculty and students; in a university panel discussion; and a community conversation, Oct. 20, 21 and 22, about the experiences of comfort women and their continuing fight for justice. Comfort women until now have not received an official apology and just compensation for their sufferings from the government of Japan.  CASJ has been a partner in this campaign headed by Toronto ALPHA since 2007, when Lola Fidencia David and three other comfort women survivors from Korea, China and the Netherlands, brought their cause to the Canadian Parliament.  That campaign resulted in Canada’s Parliament unanimously passing a motion calling on Japan to sincerely apologize to all women forced into military brothels during World War II.

The recent campaign resulted in, among other things, the signing of a memorandum of agreement between Toronto ALPHA and the Toronto district school boards, that would lead to the inclusion in the school curriculum  the history of WWII,  and the atrocities of war, including those inflicted on 200,000 comfort women, in the hope that they will not be repeated again.
Other social justice activities:

• On Sept. 2, 2012, CASJ participated in the commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the declaration of martial law in the Philippines.  Former political prisoners, mass leaders, and family members of those who were victims of martial law were among the speakers who relived the dark days of martial law and shared the lessons from the struggles for the new generation of Filipino-Canadian youth and students.

• November 23, 2012: During the Memorial for Ampatuan Massacre 3rd Anniversary and observance of International Day to End Impunity, CASJ was one of the organizations that participated in the PPCO-sponsored event, where speakers updated the participants the state of the Ampatiuan massacre case and the frustration of the victims’ families in the prosecution of the perpetrators of the heinous crime; the alarming state of impunity in the Philippines; and the continued violation of human rights victimizing sectors working for social justice.

• October 26, 2012: A dinner press conference of a colleague in the media from NUJP- National Union of Journalists in the Philippines. Nonoy Espina senior editor of Interaksyon, online news portal of TV5, a television and radio broadcasting network based in Quezon City, Philippines.  The event was attended by CASJ Board members and the representatives from Philippine Press Club of Ontario and other community associations. The speaker discussed the current media challenges and situation in the Philippines under the administration of President Benigno Aquino III.