A disciplinary incident at an elementary school on Montreal's West Island is making headlines in the Philippines.

STATEMENT OF H. E. AMBASSADOR JOSE S. BRILLANTES

PHILIPPINE EMBASSY, OTTAWA, CANADA
4 MAY 2006

The Philippine Embassy fully supports the actions being taken by the Filipino Community in Montreal, Quebec, who were outraged by the case of a Filipino student reportedly punished at a local school for his eating habits of using spoon and fork. The Embassy considers the alleged incident an affront to Filipino culture.

The Embassy is now actively and closely coordinating with the 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 behalf of the Filipino student, through its Director General, Mr. Fo Nemie, to protect the Filipino student's rights and to 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.

The Embassy continues to monitor and coordinate with the Filipino Community in Montreal and the family of the Filipino student on developments on the case.

Last month, a teacher in Roxboro reprimanded a Grade 2 boy for using a fork and spoon to eat his lunch, instead of a fork and knife.

Luc Cagadoc, 7, is from the Philippines, and his mother argues that's the way people eat there.

Philippine protesters picketed the Canadian Embassy in Manila Friday in support of the Filipino boy. About a dozen people held up placards that read, "Respect cultural diversity" and "We eat with spoons and are proud of it."

Officials with École Lalande as well as the Commission Scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys say the teacher had a right to reprimand the student for fooling around.

School officials, for their part, contend the punishment – Cagadoc was separated from his classmates and made to eat alone – had to do with disruptive behaviour, not slovenly eating.

The Commission Scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys, which operates the school where Cagadoc studies, sent a letter to his parents last month saying an April 12 "educational intervention" was "in no way aimed at the cultural practices of your community.

It was very specifically linked to the way your son was ingesting his meal that day and in no way to the method or utensils used to bring his food to his mouth."

According to family lawyer Fo Niemi, the executive director of the Center for Research Action on Race Relations, his mother was told by the school's principal during a telephone call that "this is not the way Canadians eat; you have to adapt to Quebec society."

School officials also allegedly called Cagadoc's eating habits "disgusting."