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House Hansard - 304

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
April 29, 2024 11:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 304 - Apr/29/24
Mr. Parm Bains (Steveston—Richmond East, Lib.)
  • Apr/29/24 2:07:32 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this April, we celebrated the five-year anniversary of Sikh Heritage Month becoming Canadian law. Celebrations closed out this month with a history-making performance by Punjabi artist Diljit Dosanjh, selling out B.C. Place Stadium. Sikh Heritage Month is as much about where we are now as it is about how we got here. It is important to continue sharing untold stories of our shared Canadian heritage, stories of how Sikhs landed on our shores as distinct military cavalry in 1897 and sparked the settlement for future change makers. These were discriminatory times and racist times. Leaders emerged to fight for equality, people like Naginder Singh Gill who rallied our communities to lobby federal and provincial governments to return our right to vote. We were not alone. Sikhs rallied the Chinese community and found support from Montreal Liberal member of Parliament Samuel William Jacobs, who was for many years the only Jewish member of Parliament in Canada. After a few decades of struggle, in 1947, Mahinder Singh Beadall became the first Canadian of Indian descent to vote in a federal election. I invite everyone to join in celebrating Sikh Heritage Month, learning and sharing untold stories about our shared Canadian heritage and the patriotic identity of Canadian Sikhs.
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