Turnabout on AGM On September 28, 2021, Mary Ann San Juan, President & CEO of FCT, issued an Annual General Meeting (AGM) Letter postponing the AGM for October 2021 until further notice. Thus, 2021 would have been the second year of no AGM for its members. She stated Covid as the reason and that “a virtual meeting may… Read More »
“Having the choice at the end of my life has become incredibly important. It has given me a sense of peace during a time that otherwise would be dominated by fear, uncertainty, and pain.” –Brittany Maynard The debate is over. MAID or Medical Assistance In Dying has been the law in Canada since Bill C-14 was passed in June… Read More »
by Cress Vasquez Working for the same organization for several years has its rewards, but wait until you see how the Filipino Centre Toronto (FCT) board of directors passed a special resolution that put some $500,000 into the pockets of a husband and wife. The payment, according to lawyers from two different law firms, was likely a violation… Read More »
“And what is this writing, anyway, as a human activity or as a vocation, or as a profession, or as a hack job, or perhaps even as an art, and why do so many people feel compelled to do it?” Margaret Atwood, Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing (2002). Unless you are being paid to… Read More »
I take this opportunity to share my feelings on today’s concerns and the many developments in recent memory. The COVID pandemic has focused many life issues front and centre. It broke open people’s feelings about Science, Politics, and Religion. It is as if the pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns, work-at-home arrangements, school disruptions, and a general curtailment of normalcy brought… Read More »
By Hermione Cabie Santos On August 23, 2021, the Food and Drug Administration finally granted its first approval of a COVID-19 vaccine. Pfizer-BioNTech’s mRNA vaccine, under the proprietary name COMIRNATY, reached a significant milestone in the pandemic’s history. Less than a year after the issuance of emergency use authorization (EUA) to COVID-19 vaccines from pharmaceutical giants, approximately 33… Read More »
by Cress Vasquez When Toronto Mayor John Tory spoke at the inauguration of the Filipino Centre Toronto’s (FCT) new office in Scarborough, August 2019, little did he suspect that he was in the company of individuals behind the omission of large liabilities, payables, and taxable salaries in FCT’s financial statements, and the hiring of lawyers for reasons unknown. … Read More »
“This place was part of him, and would always be. A rough place, a stern place, where it was monumental task just to survive. And it had given him some of its strength.” Max Braithwaite, All the Way Home (1986). By Rey Moreno “Don’t judge me until you learn the facts and circumstances of my life. Don’t take… Read More »
PART III, The Final Chapter I arrived in Newfoundland with little skill outside of my chosen profession. I did not have the savvy and skillfulness that allows you to get into projects that ordinarily require a pro. And yet, by the time I left, 25 years later, I learned skills that would otherwise be left unlearned had I stayed in an… Read More »
“When the plane was taking off…I will start everything again elsewhere…I was simply looking for a haven.” Ying Chen, “On the Verge of Disappearance”. The plane took off on schedule. I was at the window seat and looked out one last time, reflecting on the glaring but fading lights of the Philippine International Airport and its surrounding areas.… Read More »