Filipino Heritage month passes first reading at Queen’s Park

By Lui Queano
Toronto-Canada
November 28, 2017



The introduction of the bill will give more time for the MPPs to discuss the significance and relevance of the heritage month to the Filipino community.  The introduction of this motion came after two failed attempts of PC MPP Raymond Cho to secure a unanimous consent vote to declare June as a Filipino Heritage Month.

The motions at the provincial level were inspired by the successful motion of Councilor Neethan Shan at the City Council of Toronto to declare the motion of June as a Filipino Heritage Month on November 8, 2017.  Councilor Shan took this campaign to the City of Toronto after learning about it in a Filipino Workers Consultation he held on October 21, 2017 in Scarborough, Ontario where he was seeking to understand the Filipino Workers needs and issues and how the City of Toronto can respond to it. Ms. Corpuz, who was one of the attendees, shared, among other things, the campaign on Filipino Heritage Month that she was gathering signatures and support to submit to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.

The NDP sought the provincial legislature to officially recognize the month of June as the Filipino Heritage month in recognition of the Filipino community’s contribution to multiculturalism, culture, politics and economy of the city of Toronto as well as in the province of Ontario and in the whole of Canada.

PATAC initiated the petition for a Filipino heritage month in November 2016 according to its President Paulina Corpuz “in support of the invaluable contribution of the Filipino community in the advancement of culture, arts, politics, history and multiculturalism in Ontario.” Her primary intent was to provide space for the children and grandchildren of Filipinos and Filipino-Canadian at the school level.

“The space has been given to the Filipino community as a result of the approval at the Toronto City Council to declare June as the Filipino Heritage month. This declaration should further enhance and validate the significant contribution of the Filipino community that has impacted the cultural, political and economic life of the various minority communities in the city of Toronto as well as both in the provincial and federal level,’ Corpuz said.

“The Filipino community numbering 160,000 in Toronto  and more than 800,000 in Canada should now unite and write their MP’s and MPP’s so that our community can be finally recognized by the provincial and federal government,” Corpuz added.  (LQ)