Filipinos still fearful

A series of attacks on young Filipinos in Côte-des-Neiges area metros continued last Friday evening as two youths, one 12, another 13, were pummelled by a half dozen young adults at the Côte-Ste-Catherine metro, according to Roderick Carreon of the Filipino group Kabataang Montreal. The attack follows four prior beatings of young Filipinos in the area near Van Horne and Victoria, with injuries ranging from a concussion to stab wounds, he reports.

“In one case a guy was attacked by 40 individuals armed with knives and machetes,” says Carreon. “The local police are denying any problem with gang violence and that’s why we’re criticizing them. They say there have only been two reported disturbances, but these kids are scared of going to the police. And even our organization is being harassed. The police have pulled me over in my car about 10 times this year.”

Several young Filipinos have even stopped attending school following chronic bullying, which is largely random but also performed as an initiation rite by wanna-be recruits of the Red Blood, a street gang comprised mainly of Laotian and Cambodian youths. The Red Blood have no fear of retribution because the main Filipino street gang disbanded last year, says Carreon.

Kabataang Montreal hosts a small drop-in centre at Van Horne and Decelles where local youth play ping pong and pool, but the solution, Carreon feels, lies in a much larger government-funded centre where the kids, including Red Blood members, could go to stay out of trouble. :

—Kristian Gravenor