Little Manila: Seasonal Hub of Community Events

Volume 5, Issue No. 14

/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

BATHURST-WILSON JUNCTION

The Face, Smell and Taste of Manila in Canada 

It's the Hub That Gave Birth to Little Manila

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

“Nothing ever becomes real 'til it is experienced.” - John Keats

TORONTO - The face of Manila is literally on our faces. Not the physical face, but the metaphorical face. 

Certainly not the face, in the words of poet and novelist Miles Gibson, "that resembled a diseased cauliflower" nor of author Dorothy Canfield Fisher's "face . . . clean as a china plate".

The true face of Manila lies in between Gibson's and Fisher's lyrical description. Where to find its likeness is really not difficult as it is accessible by foot, bicycle, bus, subway train, and private vehicles.

I take the five-kilometre walk to and fro the area once I feel a craving for my favourite pancit at Sampaguita Village resto on Wilson Ave. There, I could finish an order of a medium-size plate of this noodle and try to lose the carbs by walking back home.

Eating pancit is a habit I couldn't shake off from my routine, a pleasant reminder of the time I was a foreign correspondent covering Malacanang Palace during the last few months of the presidencies of Ferdinand Marcos, the whole term of Cory Aquino, and later, the early months of Fidel Ramos.

To think about it now is to go back in time through the youthful and fruitful years as a journalist witnessing the unfolding of those troubled moments of Philippine history under three presidents.

The communist insurgency, the separatist movement in the South, the imposition of martial law, and his overthrow - those are defining periods of Marcos' rule. Then there's the short-lived revolutionary government of Cory Aquino and the endless coups that followed. After her, Fidel Ramos succeeded in stabilizing the country.

Before I would take the jeepney ride from Arlegui St. below the Quezon Bridge to San Miguel district where Malacanang is located, I would impulsively go to Chonam, my favorite Chinese restaurant near the foot of the pedestrian bridge on Raon St.

I was hoping to eat there again when I visited Manila in 2015 and in early 2018, but to my disappointment, I could not find it even behind the hundreds of sidewalk vendors blocking main storefronts. 

I then went to my second favourite, the austere and unadorned Ma Mon Luk, for the mami-and-siopao combination it's famous for. It was another quick glance at history, I thought. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-Pod8-RJTE).

Well, back to Toronto. The Filipino stores that congregate along Wilson Ave. and  Bathurst St. somehow give the area an air, smell, and flavour of Manila. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc6xyf46sek).

The junction they form is the core of Little Manila, the enclave sensationalized by Filipino businesses to identify a melting pot of different Filipino tribes who work and live in that part of the city.

The geographic boundaries of Little Manila are not well-defined, perhaps because it's officially non-existent politically and legally. It comes alive only during summer and reverts back to its dormant state the rest of the year.

(Videos at: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsJFlnNerVA, 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eACkDCFUVwY, and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2fI0c11aO0).

Even as it recedes to memory, there's a growing Filipino presence that could be seen within a half-kilometre radius (from Bathurst-Wilson junction) along Bathurst to Invernay Ave. to the north, and to Joicey Blvd. to the south; and (again from Bathurst-Wilson junction) along Wilson Ave. to Laurentia Crest to the west. Wilson Ave. eastward is mostly residential.

Outside of the perimeter further north of the intersection is Earl Bales Park at Raoul Wallenberg Rd. where stands a bust of Philippine national hero Jose Rizal. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOmxsqK801Y).

Little Manila is quite an apt description as the expanse mimics Manila, the Philippine capital, and its idiosyncrasies, warts and all. 

Philippine Ambassador Leslie Gatan christened the area Little Manila in recognition of the nascent Taste of Manila street festival in August 2014. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcZa99xeGW0).

The elements that make Manila what it is are there, except one - a house of worship. The Catholic church nearest Little Manila is the Our Lady of the Assumption (or OLA to Filipino faithfuls) Church 3.5 kilometres away south on Bathurst St. 

On weekends, the church is filled with Filipino devotees. Taking buses that ply the road to the church is like being in downtown Quiapo - full of chitchats and loud phone conversations in different Philippine dialects. 

It's this area in Toronto where one doesn't get a real feel of being outside the Philippines. It's practically the homeland transformed by the fall colours and the winter snow.

If loiterers (or "tambays" in Tagalog slang) in Manila could be found in street corners and neighbourhood stores, here in Toronto they're in coffee shops gulping down cup after cup of the beverage.

In fact, a Starbucks store had to close shop because of the pestering problem of "tambays" who stayed the whole day there on a medium-size cup of coffee, thus depriving other customers of seats and tables. The rising cost of its lease had worsened the situation.

Like its counterpart half a globe away, Little Manila is less a marketplace of ideas than a centre of gossip, a flesh market, some say; a haven for scammers, a dumping ground for the Filipino supermarket tabloids and a flea market all rolled into one. 

The story goes that non-Filipino males frequently scout the area for lonely women, some of them Filipino caregivers seeking companionship or overnight or weekend trysts. The coffee shop that shut down apparently didn't want to be typecast as a pickup point in North York.

Blemishes there may be, but Little Manila abounds with Filipinos forever trying to make ends meet. And these are the ambulant men and women who sell fruits and vegetables hidden in gym bags and worn-out pieces of luggage. Some grow them in backyards, some buy wholesale from farms and resold for a small profit. 

The money these sidewalk vendors earn goes toward food on the table, tuition fees, personal upkeep, and financial help for relatives in the Philippines. Remitting money saved from their unlicensed trade helps keep their families, and the homeland too, afloat.

While the Taste of Manila street festival has given birth to Little Manila, that particular quarter, in turn, puts the spotlight on the reality of the face of Manila. 

Certainly, the face, warts and all, of Manila in Canada is Toronto's Little Manila. A caveat though. Not all Filipinos one might encounter there are working hard, many are hardly working. (Copyright 2023. All Rights Reserved).

Canadian Heritage Acts on Funding Local Journalism Initiative

Volume 5, Issue No. 13

OPINION/COMMENTARY

/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

. . . . . A community service of Romar Media Canada, 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 16, 2023 

~ Repeated requests for comments have gone nowhere in understanding the issues of why the community's left-leaning tabloid had tried to stiff two of its writers. Its enablers in the ethnic press association, in the federal agency providing funding, and in the local rare book library, appear to have succumbed to a deafening silence, thus leaving a well-documented complaint dangling and unaddressed. The tabloid has a new hire ostensibly to pick up from the void left by the resignation of the reporters victimized by their editors.

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SCAM IN LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE?

A Deafening Silence to Conceal the Truth 

Tabloid Has New Hire Amidst Unaddressed Issues

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

"When truth is replaced by silence, the silence is a lie". 

- Yevgeny Yevtushenko

TORONTO - Four long months to the day on Friday the 13th of October and there's not a whiff of information from the usual garrulous fount of idle talk in the Filipino community.

So deafening is the silence to the point it seems to have also afflicted media advocates in such an organization as the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada (NEPMCC) whose self-ordained mandate is "to seek and publish the truth, defend free speech and the right to equal treatment under law . . . "

In June, the artist and journalist Michelle Chermaine Ramos (video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8FT2kEZfls) bared how she and another writer were duped by their principals at The Philippine Reporter (TPR), the left-leaning tabloid owned and edited by the husband and wife tandem of Hermie Garcia and Mila A. Garcia.

(Background: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/09/a-black-propagandist-in-our-midst.html).

Ms. Ramos, a staff reporter; and the other writer, a member of the youth group Anakbayan who wrote as an intern, were reporting under the auspices of the Local Journalism Initiative (LJI), an undertaking by Canadian Heritage, which invested $50 million, to support journalism in underserved communities.

Locally, LJI is managed by NEPMCC where TPR and the Garcia couple are members. In 2021, TPR got $32,038 under the Canada Periodical Fund (CPF) and an undetermined amount under LJI. For hiring reporters to write LJI-suggested stories, TPR was allocated a lump sum, paid in advance of the period to be covered.

Although the Garcias had the full budget on hand, the salaries of Ms. Ramos and the intern were withheld for months lasting nearly a year. Hermie Garcia blamed the purported delay on Canadian Heritage, specifically on somebody there he called as the "guy in charge of disbursements".

As Ms. Ramos found out later, Hermie Garcia's explanation was a fabrication. The alleged waiting period to get paid for their LJI-related work and the "guy" supposedly handling the monies were all his concoction. 

Prior to her uncovering the dubious scheme, his initial clarifications justifying the slack were not convincing enough because she knew it was the federal government through Canadian Heritage via NEPMCC that was funding LJI.

Her inquiries led her to Maria Voutsinas, a member of NEPMCC's executive board and its managing director, who explained that Hermie Garcia's so-called "grant guy" did not exist and that TPR had been given the full one-year grant money for salaries of the two LJI reporters.

From Ms. Voutsinas' assertion, it was clear Hermie Garcia's claims were untrue. It's evident too that Ms. Ramos and the intern had been deceived, lied to, used, and blamed (in the case of the intern). 

His fantastic tales lasted for months and the reasons why he did it are still unexplained to this day. Why the silence?

(Full story at: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/06/lies-deceptions-by-philippine-reporter.html).

Hermie Garcia was probably banking on the idea that none of the two writers (Ms. Ramos and the intern) would pull the plug on him, perhaps knowing many Filipinos are too timid to fight for their rights, or at the least, speak up against wrongdoing.

One outstanding question needing answers is why Hermie Garcia held the money, deceived people, manufactured lies, blamed federal officials, and made fools of Ms. Ramos and the intern? 

Another poser is his attempt to cover up. Why? Why did he keep the monies for as long as he could and released only after the NEPMCC chided him? What would have happened to the monies intended for the LJI reporters if he wasn't caught lying by Ms. Ramos?

The latest edition of TPR tells some new developments related to Ms. Ramos' complaint. On its website, it published on October 6 a story bylined by a Sophia de Guzman about the 51st anniversary of the declaration of martial law in the Philippines.

The writer's lack of background about the homeland is quite obvious in the story. According to a profile in one of the periodicals she writes for, her roots are in California and British Columbia. Apparently she's in Toronto finishing journalism studies.

Her LinkedIn profile - the full name there is Sophia de Guzman Rivadeiro - shows she was contracted by TPR in August as a part-timer with the title LJI Reporter.

For months that designation was attached to Ms. Ramos' name, then to two others in TPR. It was gone for some time, then emerged again and now appended to Sophia de Guzman.

That indicates to me a falling-out within TPR and NEPMCC, possibly triggered by Ms. Ramos' unmasking of Hermie Garcia in June, which then prompted Canadian Heritage to take a hard look at LJI and how it is being managed.

Even as her exposé was published, NEPMCC president Thomas Saras announced in June and July that "members who were qualified for the LJI will be receiving cheques soon". 

In August, he said, and I quote him, "we will be going through all outstanding LJI applications shortly and new applications will be accepted".

In all the meetings NEPMCC had in June, July, and August - which actually coincided with the publication (the list of articles below) of Ms. Ramos' complaint in the online Filipino Web Magazine - the non-profit organization never mentioned anything about Hermie Garcia and what he did with the monies intended for Ms. Ramos and the intern.

1. Lies, Deception by The Philippine Reporter Exposed:

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

2. Hermie and Mila Garcia: Freedom Fights or Traitors:

 https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/05/hermie-and-mila-garcia-freedom-fighters.html

3. Reputation of Ethnic Media Takes a Hit in Reporters' Complaint:

https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/06/reputation-of-ethnic-media-takes-hit-in.html

4. A Reflection of Life and Times That Escaped Notice:

https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/09/a-reflection-of-life-and-times-that.html

5. Did Rare Book Library Make a Mistake in Archiving TPR:

https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/09/did-rare-book-library-make-mistake-in.html

A hint that something unfavourable was happening in NEPMCC has emerged in September during its monthly meeting. There, Saras disclosed that the "LJI program was on hold due to the delay by the ministry of Canadian Heritage".

Has the federal government finally taken notice of Ms. Ramos' complaint? I hope so. 

Meanwhile, my request for an interview with Sophia de Guzman through one of her gigs has not been answered as of this writing. I worry that she might end up like Ms. Ramos and the intern - deceived, lied to, used, and blamed. (Copyright 2023. All Rights Reserved).

Was the Number of ToM Attendees Exaggerated? Why?

Volume 5, Issue No. 12

OPINION/COMMENTARY

/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

. . . . . A community service of Romar Media Canada, 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, September 27, 2023 

~ The Taste of Manila festival came and went, and presumably fattened the purse of its organizers. An excited official says "vendors made money" and urged a repeat of the event. But the big question remains unanswered: how true is the claim that half-a-million people went to the celebratory feast? At the height of his popularity, the prime minister of Canada managed to attract only 350,000 people in 2016? How different is this year's?

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ARE THE "ARTISTS" IN S.P.A.R.C. SCAM ARTISTS?

No Financial Report Despite Claims ToM Made Money 

Which One Is True: 'Almost' or 'Over' 500K People?

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ 

Editor, The Filipino Web Channel

"Exaggeration is a blood relation to falsehood and nearly as blamable". - Hosea Ballou 

TORONTO - Reading through screenshots of Facebook postings by officials behind the just ended Taste of Manila (ToM) festival has given me the opening to critique wild claims being bandied about post-ToM.

When these officials could not agree on the number of people who attended the event last month, one could almost be sure they're guessing, or at the extreme, lying.

There's some sort of Trumpism there, and I mean the propensity to exaggerate, over-value, overstate, and embroider things to pander to their base and to unknowing sponsors.

Their use of adverbs such as almost and over contradicts each other, which is quite an acknowledgement of my earlier article that raised the issue of crowd counting. (Related story: https://filwebchannelmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/08/taste-of-manila-fest-takes-giant-leap.html).

One may argue that ToM is already done this year, so what's the point of bringing it up? Well, if we don't challenge the unproven claim, organizers would continue to inflate numbers to pull in unsuspecting sponsors. That means more money for them. Is this not a con game?

Was the number more or less 500,000 as declared, or anywhere from 50,000 to the historic high of 400,000 as speculated, or 5,000 or 500 people in attendance? 

On its own, zero (0) denotes nothing, neither magnitude nor quantity. But when added to other numbers, for example, 50,000 plus zero, the comma and the period move, the equation expands, and in this case, to half a million or 500,000.

As notable as ToM is, it would take a superstar, a megastar, a big shot, a hotshot, an icon, or whatever one may call it, to swarm ToM to new heights of popularity and muster half-a-million people. 

The fact that the main organizer SPARC (Society of Philippine Artists, Recreation and Community) and its dispossessed partner IEC (International Entertainment Company) are newbies, and therefore, have no reliable track record of success in the field adds more doubt to their published assertions.

Despite their shrieking fans, the imported talents from Manila were not big crowd-drawers themselves. Neither the politicians - virtual unknowns in the community - who took the lead in a short parade.

I for one find it hard to believe the people who were there reached the half-a-million mark as claimed. There's just no information on when that number was tallied. Was it on the first day, on the second day? Or the day's estimates were aggregated, and at what point?

With his good looks that sent lonely matrons to orgasmic fits and his prominence as a politician in 2016, Justin Trudeau attracted a crowd of only 350,000 (the official estimate), and he's the prime minister of Canada. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCnr3L5Dpcg).

On its last in-person staging in 2019 prior to the coronavirus pandemic, ToM had drew in upwards of 350,000 to an estimated 400,000 people. (Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1cIFfkpnQI).

Sani Baluyot of SPARC says: "I just heard that we are hearing almost half-a-million attendees just for today". Watch at the 0:25 mark: https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=168992976180607

His partner in SPARC, the hyperbolic Marites Tolits alias Rose Ami aka Rosemarie Ami-Seaborn, writes: "Over 500K celebrated with us at the Taste of Manila 2023 - Organized by SPARC on the streets of Bathurst St. and Wilson Ave... We were happy with the results overall as there were no untoward incidents that happened, vendors made money and most of all everybody had fun! Ulitin natin to!"

The prospect for huge remuneration is what drives ToM organizers to stage the festival rather than serving the community or elevating the Filipino diaspora to mainstream respectability. 

Just imagine what 500,000 people could contribute to ToM organizers' coffers, plus the monies from sponsors, and one would have a fairly good idea why they have to inflate. It's calculated to get more sponsors next year or whenever there'll be another.

Incidentally, we can assume that ToM the cash cow has now delivered the goods, is the community poised to get anything in return? (Copyright 2023. All Rights Reserved).

A Black Propagandist in Our Midst

Volume 5 Issue No. 11

OPINION/COMMENTARY

/ News That Fears None, Views That Favor Nobody /

. . . . . A community service of Romar Media Canada, 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, September 11, 2023

 

~ To balance out the stories about the Filipino community appearing in The Philippine Reporter that may have been made part of the collection being archived in the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, the following article finds meaning in the current situation. Without my knowledge and consent, Balita publisher/editor Tess Cusipag posted the article on Facebook on October 26, 2013. Here goes:

***                    ***                     ***

The News UpFront: (TOP STORY) as of Saturday, October 26, 2013 

~ An eighty-six-year-old grandmother was visiting from Manila to tell her horrific experience at the hands of Japanese soldiers during the Second World War. At the small reception and program set for her in Toronto, she tried to shed some light on what thousands of women in several countries in Asia had undergone as sex slaves. The forum was somehow obscured by the presence of a suspected communist of a left-leaning tabloid who seized the opportunity to spread venom. Little did she know that the person she had tried to enlist as a sympathetic ear would be the one to reject and condemn her attempt. 

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MILA A. GARCIA

Rumormonger Par Excellence or Piddling Reporter?

By ROMEO P. MARQUEZ

Member, Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA), National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada (NEPMCC) and Reporters Without Borders

“People would say bad things about you, because it is the only way their insignificant self can feel better than you.” ― Dennis E. Adonis

TORONTO - The invitation to cover Lola Fidencia David, one of the few remaining survivors of Japanese sexual slavery during World War II, came from Toronto Association for Learning and the Preserving of History of WWII in Asia (ALPHA).

The request, including a press release dated Oct. 16, outlined her three-day speaking itinerary. At the bottom of the email was the complimentary closing "warm regards" and signed by a person named Tara Johnson, education officer, and cc'd to another official identified as Sarah Bleiwas who, I learned later, is the group's project coordinator.

Personally, I use phrases depending on the degree of familiarity or friendship or formality with the recipients. Most times I close with "thanks and best regards". In other situations, I just say "regards" or "all the best". But for those I've known and have been friends with for a long time, I prefer "warm regards".

The friendly warmth embodied in the letter, however, hardly materialized on the evening of the culmination of Lola Fidencia's speaking tour at the Barbara Frum branch of the Toronto Public Library on Tuesday, Oct. 22. Billed as a "community conversation", the Filipinos who attended were no more than the fingers of one hand. (Video at: http://youtu.be/cdW--R8L5Ro).

In the diverse crowd were suspected communists Hermie Garcia and Mila Garcia, both of Philippine Reporter, the left-leaning tabloid that looks like a hybrid leftist propaganda sheet and community billboard. They sat apart from each other, she on the second row and he on the fifth. (Video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4vVh6sZsPc).

Mila Garcia was literally hanging by the coattails of Lola Fidencia, breaching her private bubble, in the minutes before the program started, which made it impossible for me at least to shoot a picture without her in the frame.

The few times she strayed from the 86-year-old, Mila Garcia was engaged in animated conversations, or whispering to the ears of what I believe to be officials of Toronto ALPHA. Shortly after, the dagger looks began to come my way. One lady glued her eyeballs on me as I walked around waiting for a chance to take photos.

I tried to catch Lola Fidencia as she moved from the small reception area to the elevator where a bespectacled Chinese-looking guy took her by the arm and had some talk. I took a shot of the two, but the guy, already hostile to me, approached with a warning that that moment was "private". If I didn't stop, he said, I would be unwelcome to cover the event.

The threat came as a shock. A note pasted near the elevator door informed attendees that the event would be photographed and video-recorded. Indeed, three other people were doing the recording.

The man was one of the speakers, it turned out, identified in the program as Joseph Wong, a family physician and apparently a founder of Toronto ALPHA. At this point, I could not reconcile his antagonism towards me and his group's friendly invitation for a media coverage of this forum.

"The media are welcome at the events listed in the media release x x x It would be great if you could help us get this out to the public as it is very likely the last time a survivor from WWII in Asia will be able to present to such a wide audience," the invitation reads.

Were the dagger looks and Wong's enmity a result of Mila Garcia's "whispering campaign"?

As I scanned the faces of those in the reception, my intuition told me that I was being turned into a conversation piece - or shall I say the subject of rumour-mongering? - during that evening. I later conveyed that feeling to Sarah Bleiwas after she thanked me for the video coverage.

"At some point, it's true that I felt unwelcome," I told Sarah. "Maybe it's just my hunch, but the presence there of Mila Garcia of the already defunct CASJ made me feel that way."

I informed Sarah: "Mila and her husband Hermie Garcia x x x are the subjects of my many write-ups and exposés in my website and in Balita where I write. One of the stories I uncovered to prove that they were not beyond reproach was their attempt to run away from their debt. The Ontario Superior Court of Justice ordered them to pay $20,000." (Full story at: http://www.balita.ca/.../harbinger-of-death-of-press.../).

Further I told Sarah: "I was actually going to ask one of your people to tell Mila Garcia to stay away from Lola Fidencia knowing that Mila loves photo ops and would always, yes always, want to be in the picture. Besides, I could not ask Lola Fidencia for some information."

Having expressed that honest sentiment, Sarah wrote back and apologized profusely for "jumping to assumptions" and for the hostilities I felt and encountered.

But it was her own admission that really astounded me. "You are correct that we were informed about you by one person," Sarah said without identifying who the person was. I keep wondering what was said to engender such animosity.

Sarah was candid enough to admit that " . . . we believed what we were told without exploring and understanding for ourselves" and again apologized for it.

Outside of Lola Fidencia and Cristina Lope Rosello, the author and clinical psychologist who was translating for her, the Filipinos who were there were the Garcias and their sympathizer. I was the fourth one, which number makes for very little room to wiggle out. (Video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAVsCjSm1q0).

The turn of events did not escape notice of Ms. Rosello. In an email to a mutual friend two days later, she recounted:

"When I arrived at the Barbara Frum Library, I saw Mila Garcia whispering to Dr. Joseph Wong. It turned out that she was talking against Romy Marquez. For me, this spoiled the evening because no pictures of the event were allowed. At one point, Dr. Wong snapped at Romy Marquez. My heart went out for this Filipino".

My hunch was correct. This was an active participant in the program, an eyewitness, to whom Mila Garcia was unloading her garbage. She was spreading venom to people I don't know and who don't know me as well.

I didn't solicit Ms. Rosello comments; she asked our mutual friend to relay the contents of her email to me.

In that, she wrote: "I know that Mila Garcia is ingratiating herself to Dr. Wong so before I left, I categorically explained everything to Sarah . . . that Romy Marquez in my view is innocent, just the victim of the usual leftist black propaganda. Unfortunately, I had no chance to talk to Mr. Marquez".

Ms. Rosello added: "I also told both Dr. Wong and Sarah not to listen to any negative propaganda against you (meaning our mutual friend). I know this will be forthcoming . . . just observing how Garcia makes their mood. She was with her husband and someone from Migrante. I am really so fed up with these people . . . "

The sad part is that Wong and his crew were immediately judgmental. Except Sarah. And to think, Toronto ALPHA is preaching human rights! (Copyright 2013, 2023).