March 4th Human Rights Forum

Members of Damayan Migrant Education and Resource Center answered the call of the Community Alliance for Social Justice (CASJ) for the event that they organized. Philippine human rights activists passed by Toronto on their way to Ottawa and Montreal to speak on the current events and human rights situation in the Philippines. Since 2001 there have been more than 835 victims of summary executions. The targets of these politically motivated killings are union leaders, activists, lawyers, church people, progressive parliamentarians and even human rights defenders are victims themselves. Dr. Chandu Claver, a medical surgeon shared his emotional and first hand experience. He was ambushed in his car by motorcyle riding gunmen that killed his wife.

The group will end their Canadian trip in Montreal and will attend the International Ecumenical Conference sponsored by different church groups in Washington DC. You can see pictures of the event at: http://picasaweb.google.com/damayan.center