February 1, 2026 – One of the most courageous journalists of our time, Maria A. Ressa, named one of Time’s Most Influential People and one of its Women of the Century, will speak at UBC Chan Centre on April 2 on the current breakdown of global information ecosystem and how interconnected communities of action can hold the line to protect democratic values.
Antonio and Marissa PeñaRessa’s visit to Vancouver is generously sponsored by the Peña Family Foundation, started by philanthropists Antonio and Marissa Peña who were named Outstanding Filipinos in Canada for 2022 by Canadian Filipino.Net. Their generous gift to UBC transformed and upgraded the Lilooet Room, part of the Chapman Learning Commons used for workshops by UBC faculty, staff and students. The room has been renamed the Antonio and MarissaPeña Learning and Events Room. In addition, they also established an endowed entrance award for undergraduate students involved in the Filipino community on the basis of academic excellence and financial need.
The Peñas immigrated to Canada in 1978 and operated a successful money remittance and shipping services business for many years. Their gifts to support education and leadership was inspired by their firsthand experience with high school students learning English at John Oliver and Sir Charles Tupper secondary schools. They were deeply touched when students told them how their financial support had helped them improve their lives. Known to friends and neighbors for their humility, kindness and generosity, the Peñas are among the highly respected and admired leaders of the Filipino community in Canada.
Protecting Press Freedom
In view of the recent sentencing of two Filipino journalists to 12 years in prison in the Philippines, the upcoming talk by Maria Ressa in Vancouver on April 2, sponsored by the Peña Family Foundation, takes on new meaning. Not only is it a warning for Filipinos but for all Canadians and the world at large in these rapidly changing times.
Maria Ressa is co-founder and CEO of digital media company Rappler. Image from Maria Ressa’s social media.
Ressa, co-founder and CEO of Rappler, the top digital-only news site leading the fight for press freedom in the Philippines, has endured relentless political harassment under the Duterte government. Faced with 11 arrest warrants in just over a year, Ressa has become one of the world’s most powerful advocates for press freedom and the integrity of our information ecosystems. She has spent her career on the front lines of the global fight for truth and democracy.
She explains, “In the Philippines, we learned that fighting for facts is fighting for democracy itself. In America, one year into this new reality, that battle is no longer theoretical — it is the defining struggle of our time.
“When we analyzed the first 100 days of Donald Trump’s second term, we recognized the warning signs immediately. The chaos of those early months — 143 executive orders in the first 100 days triggering the further fragmentation of the public square — was not just political turbulence. It was the systematic importation and evolution of the authoritarian playbook we survived in the Philippines.. The first 100 days formed the blueprint. Venezuela is the proof. Minneapolis is the warning. Greenland is the pattern.”
And Canada is on Trump’s list of properties to acquire. The 51st state is no joke. The recent murders of two unarmed American citizens by Trump’s ICE murderers in Minneapolis show that Trump has been getting away with murders. The people in Minneapolis are not only fighting for their rights now but for information integrity. If Trump has his way, these ICE murderers will replace Canada’s RCMP. The Minneapolis murders are stark warning signs for the world to see and do something about.
Editor of Canadian Filipino Net
Eleanor R. Laquian has written four bestselling books and co-authored four others with her husband, Prod Laquian. Over ten years, she served in various capacities at the University of British Columbia’s Institute of Asian Research: as manager of administration and programs, editor and chair of the publications committee, and primary researcher of its Asian Immigration to Canada project.
She did her BA degree in journalism at Maryknoll College in the Philippines, a master’s degree in public administration at the University of the Philippines, and postgraduate studies at the School of Public Communications at Boston University in the US.
Before immigrating to Canada, she worked with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Health Organization, and the UN Information Center. She was a researcher and bureau manager of The New York Times in Beijing, China from 1984 to 1990. She was the first and only Filipino to conduct a nationwide survey of Filipinos in Canada, in 1972, for her master’s thesis at UP. It was published as A Study of Filipino Immigrants in Canada, 1952–1972.
She updated the survey in 2005 for a book, co-authored with her husband Prod: Seeking a Better Life Abroad: A Study of Filipinos in Canada, 1957–2007,published by Anvil Publishing in Manila. She and Prod have visited over a hundred countries for work and pleasure. They immigrated to Canada in 1969.
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