- Member of Parliament
- Member of Parliament
- Liberal
- Cloverdale—Langley City
- British Columbia
- Voting Attendance: 68%
- Expenses Last Quarter: $163,149.67
- Government Page
- Mar/21/24 3:09:27 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, for far too long, indigenous stories have been told by others, often inaccurately and insensitively. As we continue our path to reconciliation, we must ensure that indigenous voices are empowered to share their own stories, and that indigenous cultures and languages are preserved and celebrated.
Could the Minister of Canadian Heritage provide an update on the work of the Indigenous Screen Office and the unique role it plays in the promotion of indigenous artists and producers?
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- Feb/8/24 5:53:21 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleagues who spoke in favour of Bill S-202 today.
As we discuss what is hopefully the final version of Bill S-202, I am filled with a profound sense of pride in our nation's rich cultural heritage. Canadians have much to offer and, in honour of this, we ought to continue forward with the establishment of a parliamentary visual arts laureate.
Again, I would like to thank those who worked on and pushed for this legislation over many years. I thank Senator Patricia Bovey for her tremendous efforts in ensuring a genuine appreciation of the arts makes it to the House once more. I would like to thank Senator Wilfred Moore and Senator Andrew Cardozo, who have shown perseverance and commitment to this bill. Lastly, I would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to all who contributed to getting Bill S-202 to this stage.
The creation of the parliamentary visual arts laureate to go alongside the parliamentary poet laureate strengthens our recognition of the arts, while fostering a sense of pride for our country that Canadians express in the creation of their artwork. Even the very building we are in today is visited by people across Canada and from around the world for its beauty, artistic appeal and the history captured within its walls. There is no place better suited to support the continuing legacy of Canadian art through a resident artist than here.
Canada's stories, and our cultural and linguistic diversity are demonstrated in their most raw form when we, as parliamentarians, intentionally recognize our fellow citizens' abilities to strengthen our Canadian culture. When I worked as the Township of Langley's cultural services manager from 2019 to 2021, my discussions with artists heightened my understanding of how crucial art is to our resilience. Our communities flourish when we respect and encourage the creation of art within them. Art celebrates with us, mourns with us, encourages us and inspires us. Art captures moments of our history for reflection and lifts our spirits when we need to take the next step forward.
By supporting artists through the creation of a parliamentary visual artist laureate, we are taking the next step forward to ensure that Canada remains a beacon of artistic excellence for generations to come.
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- Jun/16/23 11:08:47 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I rise today to share some exciting events that are happening this summer in Cloverdale—Langley City. First, the Surrey Pride festival will be taking place on June 24 for a celebration of diversity, inclusion and equality. I look forward to celebrating Pride Month in our community.
On June 29, my office will be hosting our first summer barbecue at Langley City Park. This barbecue is a great opportunity for us to come together for music, fun and delicious food. On July 15, we have the Al Anderson pool party, a chance to beat the summer heat with freezies and other cooling-off activities. During the second weekend of August, we can look forward to a warm movie night in the park, complete with popcorn and a starry sky. As we embrace the spirit of summer activities, let us connect and celebrate the season of summer with our constituents.
Lastly, I would like to wish all dads, including my own dad, Don, a happy Father's Day.
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- Mar/31/23 12:54:56 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, this is another great opportunity to talk about the importance of the arts in our country and the support our government gives to the artistic community. We have seen many investments made, particularly during the pandemic and through pandemic recovery, and I am sure we are going to see, through the support of the House, this legislation finally implemented. Therefore, we can then have a visual artist laureate who will help further celebrate the arts within Canada.
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Mr. Speaker, next week, February 20 to 26, is Heritage Week across Canada. In my home province of British Columbia, the Heritage Week theme is “Always in All Ways”; citizens are invited to explore and celebrate the culture and heritage of the communities that make up the places we each call home.
Heritage Week is a time for all Canadians to reflect on how we can keep our heritage alive. MPs can play a role in protecting heritage places in our communities while also advancing reconciliation by supporting Bill C-23 during our next sitting week. When passed, Bill C-23 will create the historic places of Canada act, which will add first nations, Inuit and Métis representation to the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada. This action would implement the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s call to action 79. In addition, this legislation would deliver on developing and implementing a national heritage plan and strategy for commemorating residential school sites, the history and legacy of residential schools, and the contributions of aboriginal peoples to Canada's history. Therefore, I ask my colleagues to vote in favour of Bill C-23 to support our heritage.
I wish everyone a wonderful Heritage Week back in their communities.
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Madam Speaker, my work to pass International Mother Language Day dates back to the 42nd Parliament. At the time, I brought Senator Jaffer's bill to the House. It was reintroduced in the 43rd, and now the 44th, Parliament. The meaning behind International Mother Language Day is rooted in Canadian multiculturalism and openness and diversity. It is also an empowerment of our indigenous languages and a loud symbol of acceptance, internationally, during a dark time in world history. I would like to thank my colleague, Senator Jaffer, for her commitment to the bill, as well as my colleagues for Fleetwood—Port Kells, Beaches—East York and Surrey—Newton for their continued support for the bill.
If the bill passes, it will establish International Mother Language Day, a day that promotes the preservation and protection of all languages used by peoples of the world on February 21. If this had been in effect this year, it would have been just three days before Russia invaded Ukraine, partially based on the false pretext that the Ukrainian language and its people are pseudo-Russian.
We, as Canadian parliamentarians, have a duty to protect and preserve Canadian values, including multiculturalism. Ukrainians and peoples around the world have had to fight to keep their languages from imperial, jingoist and colonial powers. We have always stood up for minority groups around the world, and that is why we see so many people immigrate here. They know we offer a safe country for them. Establishing this day is yet another reinforcement of this multiculturalism.
We are not perfect, though. I just mentioned that peoples have had to fight colonial powers from taking their languages from them. That has happened here in Canada up until very recently and, even now, indigenous communities and individuals are struggling to restore the knowledge and languages lost.
International Mother Language Day promotes not only international languages but the more than 60 indigenous languages from within Canada that are not officially recognized. While this is not an official call to action, it should be seen as a small but important step on our path towards truth and reconciliation.
To my Bloc colleagues, this bill would fully and explicitly recognize that English and French remain Canada's only official languages, and this would not change. Rather, it would promote the preservation of all languages.
I know the Bloc and Quebec are adamant allies of peoples around the world seeking the right to exist as unique, distinct nations with their own languages. This day epitomizes those values. Whether it is the Ukrainian language, Catalan or any other language, the Bloc and Quebec have also stood up for people's right to speak their own language. I ask you to support this bill today for the same reason.
I would like to add that asking for support for this day is not novel. The city of Surrey, which is part of my riding, already recognizes International Mother Language Day and so does the province of British Columbia. Canada would be the first country to do so. We never shied away from standing up for those without voices before, so why stop now? It is beyond time to recognize this day.
If the symbolism in Ukraine, multiculturalism groups, promoting indigenous languages, protection of minority languages or established precedent have yet to convince some of my colleagues, perhaps a story from one of my constituents will.
The late Rafiqul Islam and Abdus Salam, constituents from Surrey, immigrated to Canada from Bangladesh. Abdus is still a constituent of my riding in Cloverdale—Langley City. This issue is dear to Abdus's heart, and was to Rafiqul's, as Bengali speakers. Both have been fully aware of what it means to not be allowed to speak their mother language and of the pain that came with fighting for the right to speak it by their elders, dating back to 1952 in what was then East Pakistan.
They had lived in Bangladesh during a time when Bengali was not officially recognized, and people would be discriminated against if they did speak it. The identity of a people was in question.
After Britain left the Indian subcontinent in 1947, dividing it into India and Pakistan, the West Pakistani ruling class declared from the outset of the new country that only Urdu would be the official state language of Pakistan. English was to be taught and recognized as a second language. Bengali, the dominant language spoken by 54% of the total population of Pakistan, was excluded.
This threatened to sideline Bengali speakers from involvement in politics. It limited their ability to succeed in all spheres, including practising their own rich language and culture. It was another example of how colonial rule led languages and peoples to be oppressed.
These discriminatory laws soon came under pressure from Bengali speakers to be changed. This was led by student protests that called for the government to include Bengali as one of the official languages.
On the 21st day of February, 1952, in the streets of Dhaka, while people were protesting and demonstrating for the right to establish Bengali as one of the official languages of Pakistan, the police opened fire on this unarmed protest. This killed at least five students on the spot and injured several more. Some were later known to have died in the hospital.
The deaths of these students and student protesters sparked national unrest and eventually the central government relented and granted official status to the Bengali language in 1956, along with Urdu, in the Pakistan constitution of 1956.
This language movement had a major cultural impact on Bengali society. It inspired the development and celebration of the Bengali language, literature and culture. February 21, celebrated as Language Movement Day, is a major national holiday in Bangladesh. While Bengalis had to fight for this, Canada now takes this for granted.
This also impacted Rafiqul and Abdus when they arrived in Vancouver as immigrants. They saw that Canada is a land where all kinds of different nationalities have come together. Along with the indigenous-rich culture, it was a mosaic of inherent beauty and strength among people, but they also realized that many small languages were dying away. These two men formed an organization named Mother Language Lovers of the World and brought in eight other people from different linguistic backgrounds.
Apart from these two Bengali speakers, there were two English-, two Filipino-, one German-, one Cantonese Chinese-, one Hindi- and one Kutchi-speaking individuals. They petitioned first to the UN and then UNESCO in early 1998 and, through various processes and protocols of UNESCO, finally International Mother Language Day was declared unanimously on November 17, 1999. The inherent beauty and unique mutual respect hidden in this for all languages and cultures was recognized by the world at UNESCO's 30th general conference. It was a big victory for all the mother languages of the world. Since 2000, the world observes International Mother Language Day on February 21.
We should recognize International Mother Language Day in solidarity for those who did not and still do not have the ability to freely speak their own language. We should recognize it in support of Ukraine today. We should recognize it because it represents our multicultural roots. We should recognize it because it promotes indigenous languages. We should recognize it because it highlights the need for protection of minority languages.
Today, I ask all my colleagues to join me in recognizing International Mother Language Day. In doing so, Canada can be a beacon for the rest of the world to follow in this peaceful gesture.
I have appreciated the opportunity to speak to this bill.
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- Apr/5/22 2:07:20 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, April is Sikh Heritage Month. The Sikh community continues to enrich and strengthen Canada since the first gurdwara opened its doors more than 100 years ago in British Columbia. I would like to wish the Sikh community in my riding a very happy Sikh Heritage Month.
I would like to also extend my well wishes to the Muslim community in Cloverdale—Langley City. Saturday was the beginning of Ramadan, celebrated by thousands in the riding of Cloverdale—Langley City. Muslims of all different backgrounds will come together for Iftars and congregational prayers in-person for the first time in two years.
Ramadan Mubarak.
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