as well as Marvin Rotrand of United A

By Joel Goldenberg
The Suburban

Côte St. Luc council passed a resolution at its October council meeting declaring June to be Filipino Heritage Month in the city.

On hand were numerous prominent members of the Montreal Filipino community, as well as Marvin Rotrand of United Against Hate Canada.

Councillor Mike Cohen, who read the resolution, pointed out that in 2018, the Canadian government adopted a motion recognizing the contributions of the Filipino community to Canada, and “the richness of the Filipino language and culture.” The federal resolution suggested local jurisdictions do the same.

The CSL resolution recognized the contributions of Filipino residents. Mayor Mitchell Brownstein pointed out that 2,000 members of the Filipino community live in Côte St. Luc, “and I hope it continues to grow, 2,000 is not enough!

“Keep on coming to our city, we enjoy your presence and we’re happy you participate in our activities.”

Al Abdon, a longtime Filipino community leader and chairman of the Filipino Heritage Society of Montreal, said he and United Against Hate collaborated on a project to promote Filipino Heritage Month, and to encourage the twinning of Canadian cities with Philippines municipalities. Abdon expressed gratitude for the city passing the resolution.

“This resolution will be extremely meaningful to the community. I would like to invite all the council members to attend our Global Zoom call planned for next June with United Against Hate Canada,” which has highlighted the historic friendship between the Jewish and Filipino communities, including taking in Jews fleeing the Holocaust.

Rotrand told The Suburban that last August, a Zoom meeting was held in which United Against Hate Canada and the Filipino Heritage Society invited the public to discuss next year’s 20th anniversary of the Montreal-Manila friendship agreement, which came about through Rotrand’s outreach as a Montreal councillor and involves twinning agreements.

“Out of that Zoom meeting came requests [from members of the delegation in CSL Oct. 21], why don’t we try to promote Filipino heritage right throughout Canada. We wrote to 60 Mayors and got an enormous response and a lot of interest. We held a call on Aug. 29 addressed by three MPs, members of four provincial legislatures, a dozen mayors and councillors, and school commissioners, and we are now getting dozens of cities across Canada adopting these types of motions. Côte St. Luc is first. It’s a national movement.” n