Category Archives: Guest Writer

EMPOWERING THE COMMUNITY Have No Fear, Speak Up!

In the last 14 months we’ve been seeking answers to many questions about the way individuals and organizations seduce the community with a combination of guile, sweet-talk and appeal to our sense of compassion. There seems to be a widening scheme to keep quiet among officials, in and out of government, associations and plain citizens. An invisible wall… Read More »

Fast Food For Thought

THE MERRY MONTH OF MAY, Part I By Rudy M. Viernes May is the month of fiestas, State it the other way. We Filipinos are never more fiesta-prone than during the month of May. May is also the flower month, and the Virgin Mary. . Being family-oriented as we Filipinos are May isn’t just a month of fiestas,… Read More »

Faster family reunification for caregivers

On April 24th, the Toronto Star carried on its upper fold the story of a dying caregiver, 44-year-old Maricon Gerente, who was granted the elusive permanent residence status. It was reported that it was no less than Minister Jason Kenney who decided to dispatch two immigration officers to Oakville-Trafalgar Memorial Hospital to fingerprint the unresponsive Gerente in exchange… Read More »

Subject: An Open Letter to Senator Mike Duffy

The Honourable Mike Duffy Senate of Canada Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A4 Dear Senator Duffy, Hardly a month after your appointment, John Fewings, in his cartoon of yourself as the poster boy for the abolition of the Canadian Senate, won’t be able to foresee how right he was at that time. While I agreed with his message then, I… Read More »

Film examines the local Filipino community

By Stephanie Waddell It’s a story that’s not all that new to Canada: Immigrants arriving here looking for a better life for their families. In this case, it’s a glimpse into the lives of a small number of Filipinos who have moved to the Yukon in search of a better life and contributed to the territory many now… Read More »

WHY PEOPLE STEAL MONEY

It is a very common subject to write about. There are pages of discussions of which are all over the World Wide Web. But throughout my life, I have not been invited to a single public discussion about the topic. Never been a question asked by my teacher or instructor or professor in my school or university. One… Read More »

PLAYING WITH NUMBERS

Numbers. We can’t live with them, we can’t live without them. We count how much we do and don’t do, have and don’t have, the useful and the useless…the good, the bad and the ugly…the number of times we seek attention and recognition and the number of times we failed…the number of times using the urinals, toilets, how… Read More »

Petitions, apologies and forgiveness

The good news is that the world did not end in the 2012 winter solstice – December 2012 – as the Mayan predicted it. Thank goodness. The bad news is that we still have to put up with the world problems. It is a mess. Maybe we can petition the Almighty God to stop it as world turns… Read More »

The Ideology of Christmas

Some Canadians as I have read a few times, believe they have no ideology unlike other peoples of the Free World. That makes them somewhat unique, truly free of the albatross or hang ups other peoples have to struggle against in their daily grind. Ordinary citizens seemed to be saying life can be lived in peace and harmony,… Read More »

Too many chiefs, not enough Indians

The late 70s were unforgettable years for me being a party lover. There was never a weekend void of Filipino parties in the Greater Toronto area. In homes, recreation rooms, banquet halls, church halls and expensive hotels, we were full of fun. Now, we still keep going. Will we ever stop? Most of these parties were held by… Read More »