Filipino 'caring culture' hit hard by Canada truck-ramming that killed 11

Vancouver, Canada - The election eve truck-ramming that killed 11 people and injured dozens more in Vancouver sent waves of grief across Canada's Filipino community, integral to Canada in part through many members' roles as caregivers.

A man drove through a crowded pedestrian zone during a Filipino cultural festival on Saturday. Officials have arrested a suspect they said had a significant history of mental health issues, and said there was no evidence of terrorism in the attack that struck just before Monday's election to choose a prime minister.

The victims ranged in age from 5 to 65, officials said. Five-year-old Katie Le was killed with both her parents, Richard Le, 47, and Linh Hoang, 30, according to a Go Fund Me page that raised $250,000 for the family. Also among the dead was Kira Salim, a teacher and counselor at a middle school and secondary school, education officials announced.

Nearly 1 million of Canada's 40 million people identify as being of Filipino ethnic origin, and more than 172,000 Filipino Canadians are in British Columbia, according to the 2021 census.

Their influence extends across Canada as caregivers. Many Filipinas have carved out their place in Canada by raising other people's children. Still others tend to the elderly, or have found careers as nurses or medical technicians.

"This is what we do best," said Christina, 58, a Filipina who attended a candlelight vigil for the victims and asked not to be identified by last name. "We're just such a caring culture. We always say we're willing to give."

David Eby, the premier of British Columbia, acknowledged their role in comments on Canadian television on Sunday when he pledged to support them "just like they support us."

"It's their turn to get care from us," Eby said.

The provincial government has pledged that victims and their families will have access to support.

The truck-ramming came during a celebration honoring Datu Lapu-Lapu, the Filipino chieftain who defeated Spanish forces led by Ferdinand Magellan in the Battle of Mactan in 1521 and became a national hero. Filipino Canadians see the government of British Columbia's 2023 official recognition of April 27 as Lapu-Lapu Day as acknowledgement of the cultural contributions of their community, one of the largest immigrant groups in the province.

"We've been here a really long time," said Jonathan Tee, 30, a second-generation Filipino born in Canada. "We don't need to earn a place here. We are here."

Some 75,000 people from the Philippines became permanent residents of Canada through the Live-in Caregiver Program between 1992 and 2014. The program offering a path to permanent residency has been modified since 2014.

Vulnerable to exploitation 

Women fleeing poverty in the Philippines and living in the homes of their Canadian bosses needed to maintain employment in order to gain permanent residency, leaving them vulnerable to extreme working conditions and abuse.

"It was deeply exploitative because of the closed permit tied to a particular employer," said Geraldine Pratt, a professor at the University of British Columbia whose studies on the subject underpinned the stage play "Nanay," depicting the lives of live-in caregivers.

"Most of us have some connection to the Filipino community. And it's not just childcare. It's care for seniors, it's hospitals, when you go for a mammogram or to get your blood tested," Pratt said.

Many immigrants from the Philippines are highly educated and overqualified for the jobs available to them, according to a 2023 Canadian census report.

More than 40% of Filipinos held a bachelor's degree or higher but were underrepresented in jobs requiring such a degree, the report said.

The overqualification rate of 41.8% was nearly double the rate of the Chinese population and was nearly three times the rate of 15.5% among the total population, the report said.

"One factor in overqualification and job mismatch was that over one-third (34.0%) of Filipino immigrant women immigrated as principal applicants through the caregiver program, which recruits them to work in personal care occupations," the report said.

About 36% of Filipinas who earned nursing degrees back home instead worked as nurse aides, orderlies or patient service associates in Canada, while 13% worked in sales or service jobs, the census report said.

Maki Cairns, 26, who advocates for the rights of women in the Philippine diaspora as an activist with the group Gabriela BC, said many have chosen to remain silent in the face of abuse so that they can bring their own children to Canada.

"Why do they have to be separated from their families and raise children that are not their own?" Cairns said. "They hardly ever get to see their children in the Philippines."

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta in Vancouver; Editing by Donna Bryson and Matthew Lewis)