Marginalized community fights for centre

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Kapit bisig centre open house

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At the Feb. 2 NDG-CDN borough council meeting in Montreal, it seemed the controversial proposal for a mini-casino at the Hippodrome site would overshadow everything else on the agenda.

But for 13 members of the Filipino community in Cote-des-Neiges, it was time to address the mayor directly about their concerns to secure funding for a centre located on Fulton Street in the city’s Snowdon district.

“We’re here to address a couple of issues with regards to Kapit Bisig Centre [KBC], which is a Filipino community centre,” youth organizer Neil Kastro said. “One reason why we’re here, we made it a point to come out in numbers, is because of the serious need to address the issues of our community.”

According to Kastro, the KBC operates primarily as a Filipino youth centre but also doubles as a meeting place for other groups in NDG-CDN. Lately they’ve been finding it difficult financially to keep their doors open.  

“That’s why it’s so important for the KBC to have a physical space to operate and help develop the community, build and organize to change the situation,” he said. “So that we can address the real issues that youth are facing.”

KBC board member Joanne Vasquez says that many Filipino families in the area live below the poverty line and that the high school drop-out rate among young males in their community is staggering, which makes this centre important to many.

“The Filipino community is the largest incoming immigrant group in Cote-des-Neiges,” she said. “The community centre has provided important education on their rights and has developed arts and cultural programs to engage the youth.”

Offering programs and events since its inception, the KBC has flourished in NDG-CDN through the participation of many including Kabataang Montreal (KM), an organization representing the Filipino diaspora in the region.

“It was created with a lot of hard struggle and no support at all from the city. It’s all been through grassroots efforts,” Vasquez said.

Snowdon councillor Marvin Rotrand admits that he’s unsure if the borough will be able to help them at all with their request to help with funding so they can find a more suitable space.

“It starts off with getting the group to make a more formal presentation,” he said.  “They were very sincere at the microphone but didn’t tell us a lot about their programs, how many members they have, what they want, what they expect from us.” 

Rotrand usually urges community organizations not affiliated with NDG-CDN to follow the procedure in becoming partner groups with the borough, but he says that it can be a long, tedious process. 

“With other groups, when we find out they exist and we find out they have roots in the community and they’re helping people, try to find if we can partner with them.”

Explaining how the borough encourages groups to share spaces, Rotrand believes it’s an easier way to save costs and work together. Because right now he doesn’t see any funds being available for this sort of venture.

“Our problem is our space is limited and the demand exceeds what we can possibly furnish. Our money is limited and there are other demands, other than social development.”

Kastro hopes the fate of the KBC won’t be jeopardized by the borough’s current economic situation, because he wants to see council continue their relationship with the Filipino community.  

“In the past the borough has shown support for the work that we do at KM and at the KBC,” he said. “Economically, we see many challenges in developing toward our settlement and integration in Canada.”

Even though immigration from the Philippines to Canada has been steady since the 1960’s, Kastro still sees many of the same issues affecting youth and possibly future generations and has brought this up before with the council.

“After 40 plus years we are still a marginalized community,” he said. “And the majority of our community is based in this borough.”  

Julie Nieto, a KBC employee and graphic designer, offers workshops for youth, giving them a place to congregate instead of on the streets. Nieto also mentions the importance of the centre in teaching them about life in Canada.

“I think our community really needs that education to know the issues, why we’re marginalized and why we’re treated like this,” she said. “As far as the youth, they go through a lot of identity issues when they come here.”

Vasquez believes that by using a grassroots approach in engaging her community, especially in dealing with youth, they will be successful in keeping the Kapit Bisig Centre open for all Filipinos to enjoy. But now she must focus on how to get the NDG-CDN borough on board.

“We also appreciate the gestures that the council has made,” she said. “They have worked with us in the past and we’re hoping for more dialogue in the future.”

And now Rotrand has asked others to look into how they can help. 

“I’m inviting the [municipal] services to dialogue with them and we’ll see,” he said. “There might be nothing we can do for them, or there might be a lot.”