2025 Canada Budget Eyes Benefits for Filipino Canadians

Volume 7, Issue No. 25

OPINION/COMMENTARY

/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

. . . . . A community service of The Filipino Web Channel (TheFilipinoWebChannel@gmail. com) and the Philippine Village Voice (PhilVoiceNews@gmail.com) for the information and understanding of Filipinos and the diverse communities in North America . . . . 

Our latest as of Wednesday, November 5, 2025 

~ The Liberal leadership in Ottawa is doing a sales pitch for its 2025 Federal Budget, saying Filipino Canadians are among those who stand to benefit. Easing of licensing requirements, tax credit of up to $1,100 for personal support workers, construction of new homes, and a pathway to permanent residency for over 30,000 workers are promised in the proposed measure now in the House of Commons.

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NOW IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 

Some Benefits for Filipino Canadians

Are Planned in the 2025 Federal Budget

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

TORONTO - The 2025 Federal Budget is giving recognition to the essential role Filipino Canadians play in health care, construction, and caregiving, a press statement from the Prime Minister's Office in Ottawa announced on Wednesday. 

Of the $51 billion budget tabled this week in the House of Commons, $97 million is earmarked for foreign credential recognition.

This "will help internationally trained nurses, personal support workers, engineers, and trades workers get their licenses faster and work in their professions sooner," the statement said.

For Filipino families, the budget will deliver direct relief. "A new Personal Support Workers Tax Credit will mean up to $1,100 more per year for eligible PSWs," according to the statement.

A new Filipino Canadian community centre in Metro Vancouver is planned to be built. "The government is also increasing financing to accelerate the construction of multi-unit homes such as apartments and townhomes, which will help reduce housing pressures, especially for multigenerational Filipino families," the statement said.

On immigration, the government hopes to stabilize the number of newcomers while increasing opportunities for those filling labour shortages. The statement said that up to 33,000 work permit holders already contributing to Canada will have a pathway to permanent residency.

The measures that may benefit the Filipino Canadian community include, according to the press statement:

1. The government is taking action on everyday affordability by reviewing bank fees, including Interac e-Transfers and ATM charges. And by enabling automatic tax filing for simple cases, low-income Canadians including newcomers and seniors will no longer miss out on important benefits like the Canada Child Benefit and the GST credit.

2. To ensure young people and workers thrive, Budget 2025 is investing in training for skilled trades and renewing the Canada Strong Pass to provide free or discounted access to national parks, museums, and VIA Rail travel. These measures help families explore Canada, participate in culture, and enjoy more affordable experiences together.

 

3. This budget strengthens safety and security for all Canadians. A new National Anti-Fraud Strategy will better protect seniors, newcomers, and vulnerable community members from increasingly sophisticated scams, while major investments in defence and cybersecurity ensure Canada remains safe and resilient in a rapidly changing world.

4. Budget 2025 invests in the workers and families who are building Canada every day, including Filipino Canadians. Together, we are building a confident, secure, and prosperous Canada for future generations. (Copyright 2025. All Rights Reserved).

Filipino Web Channel Marks 15 Years of Service to the Community

Volume 7, Issue No. 24

OPINION/COMMENTARY

/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

. . . . . A community service of The Filipino Web Channel (TheFilipinoWebChannel@gmail. com) and the Philippine Village Voice (PhilVoiceNews@gmail.com) for the information and understanding of Filipinos and the diverse communities in North America . . . . 

Our latest as of Monday, November 3, 2025 

~ This is a proud moment for us serving and sharing knowledge and experience in hopes of elevating the Filipino community from the obscene situation it's struggling to breakout. Here at the Filipino Web Channel (now on its 15th year) and its allied news outlets, we care enough to do this challenging job of chronicling life, our way of life, and its ebb and flow, in the Filipino community. 

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ROMAR MEDIA'S FILIPINO WEB CHANNEL

A Joyful Struggle Serving the Community

It's Been 15 Years and We've Not Wavered

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

"That you have enemies you must not doubt, when you reflect that you have made yourself eminent." - Thomas Jefferson

TORONTO - Each year of perseverance is a struggle towards fulfilling a purposeful journey. No material wealth to aim for, nothing to satisfy the ego, nobody to exert influence on. Just an objective passion to perform grace and charity for the community.

From its inception, the driving force writ large is to serve, mainly, the Filipino community in the Greater Toronto Area, and wherever such community exists, and to advocate for the Filipino diaspora. 

As the awareness expanded and the audience grew large, the coverage branched out to the multicultural public, and now, to countries Filipinos call home.

It's fulfilling to realize we - I myself personally - contribute something to inform and enlighten the community by sharing knowledge and experience gained from decades working as an international and domestic journalist.

A decade and a half it's been, and we haven't missed a beat, never wavered in the face of threats, never succumbed to fear. Our cup runneth over with gratitude for the goodwill and encouragement showered on us by subscribers and viewers alike.

It must be said, however, that along the way we created adversaries. Not of our choosing, just to make it clear, but because we've gone into something unheard of in the community - muckraking.

The Cambridge dictionary defines muckraking as "the activity, especially by newspapers and reporters, of trying to find out unpleasant information about people or organizations in order to make it public."

Some sectors in the GTA did not like the sound of it, much less its practice, because it aims to shine the light on criminal activities perpetrated on unsuspecting residents by people occupying positions of authority.

Some of the muckraking we did are chronicled in my Filipino Web Magazine blog (https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/). And it might astonish readers to learn that people we thought worthy of trust and respect are the very same ones engaged in skullduggeries.

Nonetheless, our heart is filled with joy as The Filipino Web Channel commemorates another milestone - 15 years - since we launched it in the fall of 2010 (exact date: November 15, 2010) to fill a gap in news coverage. (Video: Journalist Launches The Filipino Web Channel in Toronto).

Over the course of producing videos and writing the stories behind those videos, The Filipino Web Channel (YouTube has dropped the article The, thus Filipino Web Channel, or FWC) has amassed a following, either attracted by its contents, or repelled by them - a healthy exercise of one of our freedoms.

The number of subscribers (6.53K as of this writing) has grown considerably through the years. That's more than gratifying in view of the fact we had nothing but grit when we began. We aspire to reach at least a million subscribers, but that's not to say we're not happy with what we have. 

More eyeballs trained on 1,586 videos we've created, surpassing our expectations with recorded views of 3,185,985. The numbers are dizzying and to us, it shows appreciation for our work.

FWC is an offshoot of my mainstream outreach, The Gotcha Journalist aka Currents & Breaking News (C&BN), which I introduced five months ahead of FWC, on June 12, 2010, which, significantly, is the same day in 1898 when the Philippines declared its independence from Spain.

There's so much news to report about the Filipino community in Canada, specifically in our home base in the Greater Toronto Area, so that a dedicated news outlet was needed. I saw coverage by local periodicals wanting and lacking focus.

For want of resources, then and up to now, to put up a business, I had to rely on social media platforms that are readily available for free, thus the birth of C&BN and FWC on the same year on YouTube and Vimeo.

The prospects were good, so that ten months later, in September 2011, I created two more channels on YouTube - Filipino Web Entertainment and Eats & Restos - in order for FWC and C&BN to concentrate on news and features alone. As their names implied they're devoted to their respective fields.

To articulate stories through photographs and the written word, I went to blogspot.com where I actually have two more - Time & Circumstance (https://timecircumstance.blogspot.com/) and Travels & Themes (https://travelsthemes.blogspot.com/, which is complemented by Toronto Travelogue at: https://www.youtube.com/@TorontoTravelogue). Both are transitioning from blogs to vlogs on YouTube.

All these platforms led me to establish Romar Media Canada as the overall organization for my outlets on both YouTube and Vimeo. (Related video: Romar Media Canada: Redefining Community News).

From the get-go, I didn't want my time, knowledge and experience in international and local reporting to become useless without doing anything, not for financial gain, but to advance the cause of the Filipino community.

Very little is said about folks among us who are real exemplars of virtue and accomplishments, like those we find in the Philippine Artists Group. (Related story: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/06/pags-art-exhibit-celebration-of.html). 

We readily believe propaganda being disgorged by human hype machines such as by (scam?) "artists" of a suspicious organization called SPARC which managed to beguile a "foundation" to bestow its questionable community service award to a former driver. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKKviJ2tEn4&t=60s).

Moreover, pages upon pages of newspapers are generously devoted to social climbers, to movie stars and their low lives, to rumors than to factual stories, to lavish socials than to projects that enhance our well-being. 

(Related stories: 

1. https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2025/06/with-feasts-in-little-manila-comes.html

2. https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2024/12/why-do-we-celebrate-mediocrity-instead.html

I thought our moral compass has sunk to depths from which it needed rescue, and in my own little way I had to contribute what I can to call attention to the many wrongs by exposing them. 

(Related stories: 

1. https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/06/lies-deceptions-by-philippine-reporter.html

2. Balita 'Wronged' Businesswoman Liwayway Miranda, Says Ontario Superior Court in a Decision That Awards Her $250,000

It's not just what ails us that I focus on, the challenge was why the wrongs were being committed with impunity and being tolerated by the community. Where's the courage that drove us to fight our ancient conquerors - the Spaniards, the Americans, the Japanese?

To my surprise, some individuals and their friends felt offended by my language, particularly the way I described wrongdoings by the usual scam artists and largely ignored by community media.

Well, despite the poison pens and the physical and legal risks, I am very much committed to what I had set out to do in November 2010 leading to the creation of my social media platforms. 

I am inspired by what music artist Madonna said upon receiving the Woman of the Year award in 2016. Here, I am adapting it. She says: "Your resistance made me stronger, made me push harder, made me the fighter that I am today . . . " (Copyright 2025. All Rights Reserved).

Spotlight on Dr. Michelle Murti, Toronto's Top Doctor

Volume 7, Issue No. 23

OPINION/COMMENTARY

/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

. . . . . A community service of The Filipino Web Channel (TheFilipinoWebChannel@gmail. com) and the Philippine Village Voice (PhilVoiceNews@gmail.com) for the information and understanding of Filipinos and the diverse communities in North America . . . . 

Our latest as of Monday, October 27, 2025 

~ Nine months after the esteemed Filipino Canadian Dr. Eileen de Villa stepped down from her post as Toronto's top doctor to devote time to her family, a new Medical Officer of Health - Dr. Michelle Murti - takes over as head of Canada's largest local public health agency. 

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SPOTLIGHT ON DR. MICHELLE MURTI 

Toronto's Top Doctor Bares

Health Priorities for the City

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

“Great leaders don’t set out to be a leader, they set out to make a difference. It’s never about the role, it’s always about the goal.” — Lisa Haisha

TORONTO - "The greatest honour of being the Medical Officer of Health is serving the people of Toronto," says Dr. Michelle Murti, a public health and preventive medicine physician who now heads Canada's largest local public health agency.

She assumed the position on September 3, 2025, replacing Dr. Eileen de Villa who stepped down in December 2024 after leading the unit for seven years starting in March 2017. 

Related videos: 

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gicm7LdB8xI&t=31s

2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUs2wjxoTSM

"I see myself as a physician for the city, with Toronto residents as my patients," Dr. Murti stresses. "To me, serving the city of Toronto means maintaining our connection with people in creative and impactful ways." 

She said "direct engagement and health promotion campaigns" are part of an initiative to "break through the noise, and provide meaningful information rooted in evidence that individuals and communities can action in their lives." 

"It means recognizing that the work of public health involves working with our partners to help us better deliver our programs and services to residents," she adds.

Through a spokesman, Dr. Murti has bared her seven priorities in response to questions sent to her by email last week. These include:

Infectious disease and emergency preparedness, health equity, promoting healthy life spans, staff wellness and well-being, child and youth health, including student health, focus on building resilience post-COVID, improving population health, and being ready for future emergencies, and recognizing major local challenges: affordability, homelessness, opioid use.

According to Dr. Murti, she's "committed to advancing the City's key priorities and ensuring we make meaningful progress on the issues that matter most to our communities." (Background: 

https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/accountability-operations-customer-service/long-term-vision-plans-and-strategies/toronto-public-health-strategic-plan/).

Toronto Public Health (TPH) is also focusing on "prebunking" which, she says, is "a way to teach people and prepare them to spot misinformation." It would hopefully end distrust among Toronto residents who questioned the efficacy of vaccines during the pandemic.

"Prebunking helps residents recognize manipulative tactics—such as emotional language, false experts, or misleading visuals before they take hold," she explains. "This proactive approach builds resistance to misinformation and strengthens public confidence in identifying credible sources."

One of the challenges faced by TPH during Dr. de Villa's term revolved around vaccines. Quite a number of residents had resisted being vaccinated. Even so, TPH had succeeded in tempering the spread of COVID-19.

Said Dr. de Villa in 2022: "I would be remiss if I did not reflect on the enormous toll that the past three years of the COVID-19 pandemic have had on Torontonians. Together, our actions protected Torontonians, particularly those at highest risk for severe COVID-19 disease, and helped preserve health system capacity."

 

Presently, TPH is in the process of a spirited drive. "Rebuilding trust also involves reminding people of what public health actually does," Dr. Murti says. 

"Initiatives such as restaurant and pool inspections, home visits for new parents (with service in 43 languages), dental programs, disease surveillance, outbreak response and more. We need to engage directly through community town halls and education campaigns," she emphasizes.

TPH has released Toronto's Population Health Profile: Insight on the Health of Our City  at a critical time in the City’s history. (Copyright 2025. All Rights Reserved).

Virginia Roberts Giuffre's Memoir Sparks Outrage

Volume 7, Issue No. 22

OPINION/COMMENTARY

/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

. . . . . A community service of The Filipino Web Channel (TheFilipinoWebChannel@gmail. com) and the Philippine Village Voice (PhilVoiceNews@gmail.com) for the information and understanding of Filipinos and the diverse communities in North America . . . . 

Our latest as of Thursday, October 23, 2025 

~ Plain and simple: it's a horrifying ordeal. Reading Virginia Roberts Giuffre's posthumous memoir sparks anguish and outrage for the beastly acts men in high places had done on her, starting with Jeffrey Epstein and his pimp and partner in crime Ghislaine Maxwell, including Prince Andrew and former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak. 

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NOBODY'S GIRL BY VIRGINIA ROBERTS GIUFFRE 

Surviving the Beastly Acts

of Men in High Places

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

“Temper us in fire, and we grow stronger. When we suffer, we survive.” ― Cassandra Clare 

TORONTO - Reading is both a pleasurable pastime and a valuable source of information, particularly for one like me who reports the news and writes political and social commentaries.

The kind of enjoyment I get from leafing through pages upon pages of non-fiction books, memoirs, history, and poetry - all of which I have a generous collection in my small library - has been replaced by sadness and anger.

I am moved, indignant and seething with fury, after perusing some chapters in Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice by Virginia Roberts Giuffre, the teenaged girl trafficked for sex by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his cohort Ghislaine Maxwell. Virginia died by suicide on April 25, 2025.

Yesterday (Wednesday, Oct. 22), I rushed to Indigo on Bay and Bloor in downtown and bought a copy of the book before it runs out of stock. I wasn't content on reading and watching her account of the abuses on her on social media, I had to have my own copy and read for myself.

Tears welled in my eyes as I went through one of the passages in her posthumous memoir. Not only did I feel flustered, I was outraged at the thought men in high places would engage in such beastly acts on a hapless girl.

When she was 18 years old, Virginia recalled the day in 2002 in a cabana in the U.S. Virgin Islands where Epstein had brought her. She wrote:

"He repeatedly choked me until I lost consciousness and took pleasure in seeing me in fear for my life. Horrifically, the Prime Minister laughed when he hurt me and got more aroused when I begged him to stop. I emerged from the cabana bleeding from my mouth, vagina, and anus. For days it hurt to breathe and to swallow."

Quoting court filings, journalist Kim Iversen and several news outlets had identified the "Prime Minister" Virginia referred to as former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak. It wasn't the first time with him, Virginia wrote, even as he pleaded with Epstein not to send her back to him. 

Aboard Epstein's private plane called the Lolita Express, the second encounter took place in a cabin. That second interaction, Virginia wrote, "was the beginning of the end for me." Barak has repeatedly denied Virginia's claims, according to published reports.

Virginia also detailed her ordeal with Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, who was 41 years old at that time, at Epstein's house in the central London district of Belgravia in March 2001. She wrote:

"He was particularly attentive to my feet, caressing my toes and licking my arches. That was a first for me, and it tickled x x x He seemed in a rush to have intercourse. Afterward, he said thank you in his clipped British accent. In my memory, the whole thing lasted less than half an hour."

A month later, she had her second encounter with Prince Andrew in Epstein's townhouse in New York. From there, they flew to the French Riviera in southeast France. There, Epstein introduced her to his 50-year-old friend - she called him Billionaire Number Two, "old enough to be my grandpa".

She wrote: "After we had intercourse, the man offered to pay me triple what Epstein paid if I'd come 'work' for him. I politely said no and said my goodbyes . . . "

Later, Virginia wrote: "I don't know exactly when I had sex with Prince Andrew for the third time, but I know the location: Little Saint Jeff's. I also know that it was not just the two of us this time; it was an orgy.

"I was around eighteen . . . Epstein, Andy and approximately eight other young girls, and I had sex together. The other girls all seemed and appeared to be under the age of eighteen and didn't really speak English . . . "

Based on Virginia's accounts, it seems only proper for the British monarchy to strip Prince Andrew of his royal titles. Not only is he an embarrassment, he is weakening the moral fabric of the whole nation and the Commonwealth of which Canada is a member. (Copyright 2025. All Rights Reserved).