It's been nearly six months since Lorna Paragas was robbed of the job she loved, serving coffee with a side of her infectious smile — and she still wakes up every morning like nothing's changed.
"Every time I wake up 4 o'clock I cried, because for how many years I've been working there?" Paragas asks, her eyes red from the tears.
She doesn't have to wake up as early, but Paragas hasn't shaken the morning routine she perfected for 11 years, before the pandemic stole her coffee shop job. Now, the Winnipegger sits in the stillness of her apartment before dawn, watching TV because she cannot fall asleep.
Many ethnic groups suffered disproportionately from the what to do with a computer science degree pandemic, and Filipinos, such as Paragas, felt the pain more than most visible minority groups in Canada, statistics show.
More than 42 per cent of Filipino Canadians who completed a Statistics Canada questionnaire reported job losses or cut hours, compared to 34 per cent of white people. More than 36,000 people responded to the survey between May 26 and June 8.
The impact is also being felt in Winnipeg. Economist Tyler Markowsky told a city council committee last week that people from the city's Filipino and West Asian populations, at the height of the lockdown, experienced higher job loss and a greater reduction in hours than white residents.
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