HEADLINE
PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY June 1 - 15 , 2018
Downtown Vancouver festival to celebrate Taiwanese and Philippine cultures
On Labour Day weekend this year , a major Downtown Vancouver festival will celebrate two cultures that have long been linked to each other .
TAIWANfest in its 2018 edition will continue with the festival ’ s traditional of cross-cultural exchange and celebration , this time between Taiwanese and Philippine cultures .
2018 TAIWANfest will be held along Granville Street , Vancouver Art Gallery Plaza , and various nearby venues from September 1 to September 3 .
In the newest addition to the Dialogues with Asia series , the 29th edition of TAIWANfest celebrates a Fệte with the Philippines with a new perspective on diversity .
“ During our research trip to the Philippines , we encountered a concept introduces to us as ‘ mestizo ’,” shares Charlie Wu , Managing Director of Asian-Canadian Special events Association ( ACSEA ) which organizes the festival .
“ The Filipino people we met have gone through such a long history of mixing aces and ancestry that diversity has become the unspoken norm . Despite dozens of provinces and dialects , people are regarded and respected as fellow human beings , without special attention to their ethnicity , skin colour , or simple labels .”
This year , ACSEA partners with the United Filipino Canadian Associations of British Columbia ( UFCABC ) to showcase Fệte with the Philippines with stories of Filipinos , Filipino Canadians , and even Filipino Taiwanese social and cultural innovators in Canada and around the world .
Alongside TAIWANfest ’ s own rich line-up of programming , the partnership is certain to result in a flurry of activities this summer . UFCABC works in partnership with
dozens of Filipino communities and o r g a n i z a t i o n s throughout BC .
Fo s t e r i n g cultural heritage while growing newer and broader roots is a familiar concept to virtually all i m m i g r a n t c o m m u n i t i e s . From celebrated successes like Chef Hidekazu Tojo and his famed California Roll to renewed efforts like the region-wide Lunar New Year Festival , arts and culture are the forces that drive us forward .
2018 TAIWANfest takes place this September 1 to September 3 along Granville Street from West Pender Street to Robson Street , as
President Joel Castillo , and the Asian-Canadian Special Events Association ( ACSEA ) Managing Director Charlie Wu well as Vancouver Art Gallery Plaza and various indoor venues nearby .
Activities include music , performance , culinary and visual arts , workshops , and experiences to present a cultural dialogue between communities of Taiwan , the Philippines , and Canada .
Leticia ‘ Letty ’ Sarmiento , who came to Canada as a caregiver and later won a landmark court case in Vancouver over human trafficking , died on June 5 . Sarmiento was 45 . According to Migrante B . C ., Sarmiento passed away at 5:40 p . m . at the St . Michael ’ s Hospice in Burnaby .
Her life will be celebrated on June 17 , from 3 p . m . to 6 p . m . at St . Barnabas Anglican Church at 1010 5th Avenue , New Westminster . ( For more info , please contact Beth Dollaga at 604-616-3015 ; her daughter Mika at 778-522-5503 or her friend Harevie at 778-838-7221 .)
“ Migrante BC member Beth Dollaga shared Leticia ’ s struggle as a Filipino migrant worker at a Vancouver forum that helped grant one of Leticia ’ s last wishes which was to go home to the Philippines . Leticia was frail but expressed her thanks to everyone who helped to make this possible ,” according to Migrante B . C .
“ The truth is , we thank Leticia for allowing us to share and support her courageous struggle . In the end , we are all better people for having known Letty ,” the group stated .
On October 12 , 2016 , Vancouver man Franco Orr was handed a threemonth conditional sentence after he was convicted of illegally employing a foreign national in the person of Sarmiento .
Orr , 53 , was found guilty of employing a foreign national without
Community mourns death of nanny Leticia Sarmiento
authorization .
At his sentencing , B . C . Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Duncan said Orr benefited from the nanny ’ s “ cheap labour .”
The sentence included 25 hours of community service and nine months probation .
Sarmiento was brought to Canada from Hong Kong on a temporary visa to look after Orr ’ s three children .
Sarmiento had claimed that she was forced to work long hours for low pay .
In 2010 , she called police and Orr and his wife were charged with human trafficking . He was convicted in 2013 and sentenced to 18 months in jail .
The guilty verdict was a first for B . C . But Orr successfully appealed and a new trial was ordered .
His wife , Nicole Huen , was acquitted of the charges .
Migrante ’ s Beth Dollaga has written a personal account about Sarmiento .
“ In August 2010 , in one of Migrante BC ’ s community outreach , I met a stranger who became a friend . I am attaching a name to my story , Leticia Sarmiento or Letty to many of her friends . She was a daughter , a sister , was then a young-bride but soon to find herself fighting to free herself from an abusive relationship . She was a mother , a worker , a woman of courage , a friend .
“ Letty was one of the 1.5 million Filipinos leaving every year to work in over 230 countries in the world . Massive unemployment , landlessness , poverty and globalization have been forcing Filipino people to migrate .
“ In 2000 , Letty left her three young children in the care of her mother to work as a domestic worker in Saudi Arabia . She worked there for four years and moved to Lebanon in 2004 . In 2006 , she fled Lebanon on foot along with other nationalities , trekking on the desert for safety . She and other compatriots felt they were neglected by the Philippine government at a time they were fleeing the war . They were at the mercy of the Italian government service for rescue . Letty said she was lucky to make it home . Unfortunately , having made it home alive from bombs and bullets , she was now faced with bullets of unemployment and economic hardship . Again , Letty mustered the courage to leave the country and endure once more the emotional tragedy of separation from her family to provide their basic needs . She left for Hong Kong in 2006 as a domestic worker and was brought to Vancouver , Canada by her employers in 2008 .
“ Leticia was a victim of human trafficking from Hong Kong to Canada , and her case led to the first conviction under Canadian law for such . Her
WWW . PHILIPPINEASIANNEWSTODAY . COM traffickers eventually had these two landmark and serious convictions overturned at an appeal by her employers . Migrante BC helped her resettle in Vancouver where eventually her two young-adult children Mika and Mark were reunited with their mother .
“ It is not enough to tell stories . It is not enough to know someone else ’ s story . The story must weave with the stories of struggles of the people around the world . In the midst , there are people who know what it means to love and to care , to dare to take a step in an organized action , and fulfill the promise of a better tomorrow for everyone .
“ Letty , kabsat , sister , thank you for the opportunity to know you and to learn from you . Thank you for being part of my personal journey . REST IN POWER and in PEACE !” Dollaga wrote .