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Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance
Press Releasee
Prevent another tragedy! Filipino youth group calls for genuine
support and services for Filipino youth; to rally today
May 18, 2006
Vancouver, BC --- As the sentence hearing of the accused youth in Mao
Jomar Lanot’s case draws to a close, Filipino youth including high
school students, South Asian youth, members of the Filipino community
and other supporters will rally *today, Thursday, May 18, 2006, at 4 pm
outside the BC Supreme Court (Hornby and Nelson St.) in Vancouver. *
Mao Jomar Lanot was a 17-year old Filipino boy who was severely beaten
outside of Sir Charles Tupper Secondary School in Vancouver by a group
of youth in November 2003. He later died in hospital.
Since the unfortunate tragedy of Jomar, the Filipino-Canadian Youth
Alliance has been voicing out their position that his death is an
example of systemic racism in Vancouver schools and the glaring lack of
genuine support and services for youth of colour in Canadian society.
The Vancouver-based youth group is organizing the rally to express their
support for the Lanot family while at the same time calling for
institutions such as the Vancouver School Board to be proactive in
preventing similar tragedies by foremostly recognizing the conditions of
Filipino youth and the immediate need to providing genuine support services.
“Vancouver schools must realize that Filipino youth in Canada are
traumatized. They experience long years of family separation as their
mothers are forced to migrate to Canada first under Canada Immigration’s
temporary foreign worker program -- the Live-In Caregiver Program,”
explains Charlene Sayo of the Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance, “When
Filipino youth are finally reunited with their mothers, they are
strangers while at the same time they have to contend with adapting to a
new life, cultural, and society. This process of separation and
reunification is a traumatic experience. Now, we have traumatized youth
attending our schools, but there are no support or services for them,”
ends Sayo.
Professor Geraldine Pratt of the University of British Columbia found
that Filipino youth have the second highest drop-out rate in Vancouver’s
high schools and hold one of the lowest grade point averages. Professor
Pratt points to the youth’s experience of family separation and
reunification as a major factor in Filipino youth’s dismal record in the
city’s education system.
“The case of Mao Jomar Lanot and the systemic racism that Filipino youth
face are often addressed as separate, individual cases by institutions
such as the Vancouver School Board,” maintains Albert Lopez of the
Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance, “Yet these are not isolated incidents.
Racism is pervasive in Vancouver schools and must be dealt with
immediately by working with community-based organizations in providing
real support and services to Filipino youth,” he asserts.
The group maintains that it is still open to continue its dialogue with
the Vancouver School Board.
Since 1996 the Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance has been documenting
cases of systemic racism and doing grassroots-based anti-racism
education and advocacy work both locally, nationally and internationally.
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For more information, please contact: Mildred German or Albert Lopez
Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada / the Filipino Canadian Youth
Alliance
Telephone No: 604.215.1103
Cellphone: 604.773.0185
Email: ukpc_fcya@kalayaancentre.net
Website: www.kalayaancentre.net, www.ugnayan.net |
