RP-Canada relations not hurt by ‘fork’ incident, says envoy

Canadian Ambassador Peter Sutherland said yesterday the incident involving a lunch program monitor who allegedly reprimanded and punished a seven-year-old Filipino-Canadian boy for his table manners is being addressed and is not an irritant in Philippine-Canadian relations.

Sutherland said he was in Canada from April 23 to May 1 and spoke with Filipino-Canadian associations in Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa and Winnipeg, but said the matter was not brought up by any of the associations during the meeting.

The envoy said he was already in the Philippines when he learned about the incident, which he referred to as "atypical" and "isolated."

"It is (an) atypical and isolated incident. We know nothing of the case except what came out in the media," Sutherland said. "The incident is isolated and is not a cause of irritant between our two countries because, again, this is atypical of Canada and the issue is already being addressed."

Sutherland added that the Filipino-Canadian community is contributing to the success of Canadian multi-culturalism.

The Philippine Embassy in Canada fully supports the actions being taken by the Filipino community in Montreal, Quebec, who were outraged that Filipino-Canadian Luc Cagadoc was reportedly punished in a school in Roxboro, Montreal last April 11 for eating with a spoon and fork instead of just a fork.

"The Embassy considers the alleged incident an affront to Filipino culture," Philippine Ambassador to Canada Jose Brillantes said in a statement.

The embassy is actively and closely coordinating with members of the Filipino community in Montreal on the complaint filed before the school board by the Center for Research Action on Race Relations (CRARR) on Cagadoc’s behalf through its CRARR director general Fo Nemie to protect the Filipino student’s rights and assert his cultural heritage.

"To assert one’s accepted eating practices, which after all are most proper and which have become part of one’s cultural identity is, in fact, encouraged under the Canadian immigration policy on creating a Canadian mosaic rather than a melting pot," Brillantes said.