Live-in caregiver program: End it, don't mend it
Vancouver Sun
May 15, 2009
Letter to Editor By: Glecy Duran, Chairperson, SIKLAB - BC, Vancouver

Re: Deeper issues lurk beneath MP's caregiver problems, guest editorial, May 12

I am a former live-in caregiver and am now an advocate for Filipino live-in caregivers.

… While we watch the case unfold, I challenge Canadians to question the LCP itself. Let's get over our discomfort about domestic work in our society. These women are all around us, slaving away in the hidden domain of the home.

Let's confront what continuing the program really means - the promotion of modern-day slavery and a class-, race- and gender-based hierarchy when it comes to child care, elder care and the care of people with disabilities. Is this our vision of a just society?

It's time for Canada to end the program.

We no longer accept Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney's position that it can be reformed. Our women say, "End it, don't mend it!"

Canada should allow these women to come as permanent residents with their families.

It should do away with the mandatory live-in status and let them work with full rights.

It should also implement a universal, accessible child care program. Now that I have my own child (who was born in Canada), I struggle to find her adequate child care. How sad and ironic that we Filipino women experience this, after we have taken care of thousands of Canadian children.