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HOUSE OF COMMONS CHAMBRE DES COMMUNES CANADA
Navdeep Bains Member of Parliament Mississauga - Malton
Dear Friends, Happy Canada Day! Each year on July 1st, we gather to celebrate our country, which has become home to people from every corner of the world. This is a time to celebrate, but also a time to connect with one another and our community. Over the last 149 years, our nation has become more diverse and inclusive. We have the great fortune to live in a country where diversity is celebrated and an immense source of strength. Organizations such as the Punjabi Virsa Arts & Culture Academy play an important role in this diversity. The Academy helps our youth understand their heritage and be proud of itadding to the rich mosaic of diversity that is Canada. The Government of Canada is working to build a better future for every Canadian. Through historic investments and a bold agenda, we are working hard to grow an economy that supports the middle class and those working hard to join it. When I look at the work we are doing, the work of organizations such as the Academy, and our youth, I know we are on the right track to building an even better Canada. Today is also beginning of what will be an incredible 364 day countdown to a momentous day next year when we celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday. On this special day I wish you the very best, and once again, Happy Canada Day!
Hon. Navdeep Bains, PC, MP Mississauga-Malton
Ottawa Room 356, Confederation Building, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6 Tel.: 913-995-7784 Fax: 613-996-9817
Constituency Office 6660 Kennedy Road, Unit 210, Mississauga, Ontario L5T 2M9 Tel.: 905-564-0228 Fax: 905-564-1147
Navdeep.Bains@parl.gc.ca
Canada Day Canada Day is July 1st of every year. Canada Day marks the joining of the British North American colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Province of Canada into a federation of four provinces on July 1, 1867.Canada Day is the national day of Canada, frequently referred to as “Canada’s birthday”, Canada became a kingdom in its own right on that date, called the Dominion of Canada The enactment of the British North America Act, 1867 , which confederated Canada, was celebrated on July 1, 1867, with the ringing of the bells at the Cathedral Church of St. James in Toronto and “bonfires, fireworks and illuminations, excursions, military displays and musical and other entertainments”, as described in contemporary accounts. On June 20 of the following year, Governor General the Viscount Monck issued a royal 6
proclamation asking for Canadians to celebrate the anniversary of Confederation, However, the holiday was not established statutorily until May 15, 1879, when it was designated as Dominion Day, in reference to the designation of the country as a Dominion in the British North America Act. The holiday was initially not dominant in the national calendar; any celebrations were mounted by local communities and the governor general hosted a party at Rideau Hall. No official celebrations were therefore held until 1917 and then none again for a further decade—the golden and diamond anniversaries of Confederation, respectively. The Americans separated from British rule in 1776, and celebrate Independence Day on July 4th. Canada waited nearly 100 years later, until 1868, to create the “Dominion of Canada”. Independence Day celebrates the rejection of British rule and the United States becoming an autonomous country. The basis of Canada’s celebration is founded on the formation of a new country and the union of provinces. The holiday became a statute in 1879 but was initially called Dominion Day. There are not any records of early celebrations of Canada (Dominion) Day, except for two
years. In 1917, it was used to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Confederation. It was also a backdrop to the dedication of the Parliament Buildings Centre Block which was being constructed. It was dedicated to the Fathers of Confederation and to Canadians fighting in the First World War. It wasn’t until 1982 that Dominion Day was officially changed to Canada Day. As we approach Canada’s 150th anniversary in 2017, the government has given the Department the mandate to organize Canada Day festivities in the capital. Most communities across the country host organized celebrations for Canada Day, usually outdoor public events, such as parades, carnivals, festivals, barbecues, air and maritime shows, fireworks, and free musical concerts,as well as citizenship ceremonies for new citizens.
Canada Day was initially called Dominion Day until 1982
Sikhism In Canada Kesar Singhi was the first Sikh settled in Canada
Sikhism, a major world religion, arose through the teachings of Guru Nanak in the Punjab region of India. There are about 27 million Sikhs worldwide, making Sikhism the fifth largest religion. Canadian Sikhs are one of Canada’s largest non-Christian religious groups and form the country’s largest South Asian ethnic group. The vast majority of Sikhs live in Asia and approximately 2.6 per cent live in North America. Census figures suggest that there were 455,000 Sikhs in Canada in 2011, more than double the 1991 population estimate of 145,000.
First Sikhs in Canada
In 1897, Queen Victoria invited her Indian troops to attend her Diamond Jubilee celebrations in London. These Sikh soldiers, having crossed Canada on their way home, returned to India with stories of an attractive land waiting to be settled by British subjects. Kesur Singh, a Risaldar Major in the British India Army, is credited with being the first Sikh settler in Canada. He was amongst a group of Sikh officers who arrived in Vancouver on board Empress of India in 1897. The first Sikh pioneers came to the Abbotsford area in 1905 and originally worked on farms and in the lumber industry. By 1906, there were 1,500 Sikh workers living in Canada. In 1907, Buckam Singh came to British Columbia from Punjab at the age of fourteen. Due to the ignorance of Eastern religions at the time, all South Asians were known as Hindus, 8
despite over 98% of immigrants being Sikh. 90% of these Sikhs lived in British Columbia. Despite discrimination, in British Columbia Sikhs quickly established a strong community centred around their religious institutions. The Vancouver Khalsa Diwan Society, created in 1907, established the first permanent gurdwara, or temple, in 1908. Within a decade, gurdwaras had been established in other communities, including Victoria, Nanaimo, New Westminster and Abbotsford. By 1920, other gurdwaras had been established in New Westminster, Victoria,Nanaimo, Golden, Abbotsford, Fraser Mills and Paldi. Each was controlled by an independent, elected executive board. In 1914, Buckam Singh moved to Toronto. Buckam Singh enlisted with the Canadian Expeditionary Force in the spring of 1915. Buckam Singh was one of the earliest known Sikhs living in Ontario at the time as well as one of only 9 Sikhs known to have served with Canadian troops in World War I. Private Buckam Singh served with the 20th Canadian Infantry Battalion in the battlefields of Flanders during 1916. Here, Buckam Singh was wounded twice in battle and later received treatment at a hospital run by one of Canada’s most famous soldier poets the Doctor Lt. Colonel John McCrae. While recovering from his wounds in
England, Private Buckam Singh contracted tuberculosis and spent his final days in a Kitchener, Ontario military hospital, dying at age 25 in 1919. His grave in Kitchener is the only known WWI Sikh Canadian soldier’s grave in Canada. Despite being forgotten for ninety years and never getting to see his family again, Buckam Singh is now being celebrated as not only a Sikh hero, but a Canadian hero.
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Premier of Ontario - Première ministre de l’Ontario
July 1, 2016
A PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM THE PREMIER On behalf of the Government of Ontario, I am delighted to extend warm greetings to Ontario’s Punjabi community as you mark our nation’s birthday in your Canada Day celebration. Canada began as a union — each colony bringing their own cultural and linguistic traditions to the newly minted country within the British Empire. Today, we are a multicultural success story — a strong and harmonious collection of different ancestries, histories, languages and beliefs. It is wonderful to see you celebrating this day through your own rich performing arts and traditions. Ontario’s Punjabi community has contributed much to the success of our province and our country. In every field, and in every walk of life, you have made your mark — and helped shape the dynamic multicultural character of the province we share. I thank the organizers and volunteers of Punjabi Virsa Arts and Culture Academy for their hard work and dedication. Know that this celebration enhances the cultural landscape of Ontario and Canada. Please accept my best wishes for a memorable Canada Day celebration.
Kathleen Wynne Premier 11
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Komagata Maru In 1914, Gurdit Singh Sandhu, from Sarhali, Amritsar, was a well-to-do businessman in Singapore who was aware of the problems that Punjabis were having in getting to Canada due to exclusion laws. He initially wanted to circumvent these laws by hiring a boat to sail from Calcutta to Vancouver. His aim was to help his compatriots whose journeys to Canada had been blocked. In order to achieve his goal, Gurdit Singh purchased the Komagata Maru, a Japanese vessel. Gurdit Singh carried 340 Sikhs, 24 Muslims, and 12 Hindus in his boat to Canada. On May 23, 1914, a crowded ship from Hong Kong carrying 376 passengers, arrived in Vancouver’s Burrard Inlet on the
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west coast of the Dominion of Canada. When the ship arrived in Canada, it was not allowed to dock. The passengers, were challenging the Continuous Passage regulation, which stated that immigrants must “come from the country of their birth, or citizenship, by a continuous journey and on through tickets purchased before leaving the country of their birth, or citizenship.” The regulation had been brought into force in 1908 in an effort to curb Indian immigration to Canada. As a result, the Komagata Maru was denied docking by the authorities and only twenty returning residents, and the ship’s doctor and his family were eventually granted admission to Canada. Following a two month stalemate, the ship was escorted out of the harbour by the Canadian military on July 23, 1914 and forced to sail back to Budge-Budge, India where nineteen of the passengers were killed by gunfire upon disembarking and many others imprisoned. In 1988, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney formally apologized to those sent to Japanese internment camps in the 1940s, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued official apologies for the Chinese head tax in 2006 and to residential school survivors in 2008. The B.C. government formally apologized for the Komagata Maru incident in May 2008 and a monument
was unveiled on Vancouver’s seawall in 2012, funded by the federal government. But Harper stopped short of a formal apology in August 2008, when he instead apologized at a Sikh gathering of 8,000 in Surrey, B.C., home of the country’s largest Indo-Canadian population. Nearly 102 years after the Komagata Maru sailed into Vancouver, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has offered a full apology in the House of Commons for the government of the day’s decision to turn away the ship, which was carrying hundreds of South Asian immigrants, most of whom were Sikhs.
“No words can fully erase the pain and suffering they experienced. Regrettably, the passage of time means that none are alive to hear our apology today,’’ Trudeau said. “Still, we offer it, fully and sincerely. For our indifference to your plight. For our failure to recognize all that you had to offer. For the laws that discriminated against you, so senselessly. And for not formally apologizing sooner. “For all these things, we are truly sorry.’’ Komagata Maru was a coal-transport steamship converted into passenger ship
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On Behalf of Canada day 2016 Celebration Team, we would like to Thank You for the generous supportand sponsership given by your esteemed business organization. We wish you continued success and prosperity in years to come. Looking forward to serve and promote your business in future as well.
HAPPY CANADA DAY!
HOPE TO SEE YOU NEXT YEAR TOO TOO!