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House Hansard - 40

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
March 3, 2022 10:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 40 - Mar/3/22
Mrs. Jenica Atwin (Fredericton, Lib.)
  • Mar/3/22 2:03:45 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as we all know, February was Black History Month. The theme for this year was “February and Forever: Celebrating Black History today and every day”. Even if February is over, all year long we must continue to learn, recognize and celebrate Black history and Black Canadians in our communities and support Black-led organizations and businesses. Equally, we must take actions in our everyday lives and commit to actively being anti-racist in the fight against systemic anti-Black racism. In the spirit of celebration, I want to celebrate and acknowledge some of the organizations doing crucial work in our community such as Black Lives Matter Fredericton, the New Brunswick African Association and the New Brunswick Black Artists Alliance. I want to highlight the initiative of the University of New Brunswick that put up banners in downtown Fredericton to honour Black New Brunswickers including Anna Minerva Henderson, a civil servant and poet who was the first Black federal employee of Canada. We have a duty to remember those who paved the way and transformed our society. Finally, in honouring the global fight against systemic racism, I want to conclude by saying that we cannot close our eyes and we must denounce the reports that citizens from African countries have been mistreated, dehumanized and even stopped at neighbouring country borders while seeking safety trying to flee war-torn Ukraine. The hatred must stop here and everywhere. It is my hope that all members in the House will join me in supporting the successes of Black Canadians and condemn all forms of anti-Black racism.
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Context: House Hansard - 40 - Mar/3/22
Mr. Blake Desjarlais (Edmonton Griesbach, NDP)
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague for this very delightful discussion. I believe many folks are in agreement about the importance of this work. For too long, Canada's large and diverse Arab communities have not received the recognition they deserve from our institutions, including the House. This must change. That is why New Democrats are proud to support this crucial piece of legislation to recognize the month of April as Arab heritage month. I am delighted and honoured to rise in support of the bill as the member of Parliament for Edmonton Griesbach. As a member who has the honour of representing one of Canada's largest and oldest Arab communities, I would like to take a moment to thank my colleague, the member for Ottawa South, for his leadership in drafting this important private member's bill. As an indigenous person, I know first-hand how racialized folks are left out of the history books. Too often, our contributions go unnoticed, and even sometimes our words. Our stories often go untold or unrecognized. Whether it be Arab heritage month or even Black History Month, any history of racialized folks is often forgotten, which is why this work is so important. We are often taught diluted stories about own own histories, of our own experiences. We see this clearly with indigenous history and our fight to ensure that true stories like those of the residential schools continue. Like many racialized folks in Canada, I grew up without seeing myself represented in media, books, advertisements and, yes, our history. Today I and many others still have long-lasting and real trauma related to the reclamation of our own identities and our ability to see our culture, language and achievements seen and valued here in Canada. I want to see a world where my niece and all young people who are racialized do not have to ask, “What is wrong with me?” “Why am I not beautiful, and why do I not belong?”. I want to live in a Canada where she does not have to say that she is going to play “pretend” to be white just in order to play with other kids. All children deserve to be seen, and they deserve to be recognized. Without this necessary work, a whole generation of Arab Canadians will not see themselves and their extraordinary contributions to this country. This is important work, especially as we witness the rise of anti-Arab and particularly anti-Muslim hate across Canada, which is often gender-based and dangerous. This is certainly true in my home community of Edmonton Griesbach. We must do everything we can, like ensuring visibility and recognition are truly part of how we relate to our fellow neighbours, our friends, our family members, our colleagues and the people we see in our communities. Arab heritage month would provide us all with an extraordinary opportunity to learn more about Arab Canadians and their achievements as part of our country, whether it is in the arts; sports; politics, as was mentioned by members previous; business; academics; sciences; and literature. It is also a time for us to recognize the ongoing challenges and barriers that are being faced by Arab Canadians. Hate crimes are still on the rise in Canada and, sadly, we have seen the horrific results of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hate across our country. Celebrating and honouring the many contributions of Arab Canadians is an important part of the work we all must do as parliamentarians to combat all forms of discrimination and hate-fuelled violence directed at Arab communities across our country. Arab history month and every month after that can be a time for us to continue working towards a compassionate, inclusive and safer Canada for everyone. I am calling on all members of the House to come together and pass the bill as soon as possible. April is just a few weeks away, and with unity and leadership across all parties, we can ensure that the next month is Canada's first-ever Arab heritage month. I hope that next month we can all have the opportunity to celebrate Arab heritage month, regardless, in our communities. Arab Canadians are there so long as they can be seen. I would like to spend the remainder of my time telling a story from the remarkable Arab Canadian community in my riding of Edmonton Griesbach. Edmonton is home to almost 5% of Canada's Arab population, and I am proud to say that the heart of our Arab community is in my riding. Arab Canadians lived on Treaty 6 territory since before Alberta was even a province. The first immigrant families from Lebanon and Syria arrived in Alberta over 130 years ago in the 1880s to meet my families, who were fur traders at that time. I want to tell a story about one remarkable Arab Canadian woman who came to Canada all the way back in 1923 but whose contributions are still felt every single day in my riding. Her name was Hilwie. Hilwie Jomha was born in Lala, a small village in the Beqaa Valley in what is now Lebanon, in 1905. She was the daughter of a leading family in the village, whose culture was a mix of Sunni and Shia as well as Christians and Jews. Hilwie's future husband, Ali Hamdon, had come to Canada in the early 1900s. Together with relatives and friends from the Beqaa Valley, he became a fur trader in Fort Chipewyan, where my relatives have been for thousands of years, in northern Alberta. After he set up a home there, he returned to Lala and Hilwie. She immigrated with him in 1923 to begin a life here in Canada. Hilwie quickly adapted to life in Alberta. She struck up a deep friendship with the Jewish families in Fort Chipewyan. After Hilwie had children, the Hamdons moved to Edmonton. Edmonton is where Hilwie truly made her mark as a citizen. The city's small but fast-growing Muslim community had a big problem in the 1930s. Like everywhere else in Canada at the time, it did not have a mosque. Prayers had to be held at individuals' homes, but there were limits to what they could do without a common meeting place. Hilwie had a natural gift for connecting people. She brought Muslims together for Ramadan and became the fixture of the local community during the 1930s. It was a decade when Arab businesses in Edmonton were making their mark on the city's business scene. The Arab community in Edmonton had great strength and the people began discussing building their own mosque. Hilwie was at the heart of these conversations. Soon these talks turned to action and Edmonton's Arab community hatched a plan to build North America's first mosque. Along with a group of Arab businessmen, Hilwie approached the mayor of Edmonton about buying some city land for a mosque, but there was a problem. The mayor wanted $5,000, a large sum of money at that time for a property. The community was not organized and there was no central body that had enough money to pay for the mosque. To solve this, the community came together to found the Arab Muslim Association. Hilwie was at the heart of the organizing. She marshalled the entire community, including some of the various religious groups, to build the very first mosque. Hilwie went from door to door on Jasper Avenue, not far from where I live today in the heart of Edmonton Griesbach, and asked business owners to support the project, as well as community members and neighbours. These efforts allowed the group to buy land for the mosque and build its foundation. However, there were more challenges. The initial funding was not enough to complete the mosque. When the money ran out, Hilwie and Arab communities sprang into action and made appeals for funding from the Muslim business communities across western Canada. This work finally culminated into finishing the Al Rashid Mosque, which opened its doors in 1938. I would like to end my speech by repeating my call for all of my colleagues to unite and ensure the bill to enact Arab heritage month passes as quickly as possible. I hope to celebrate it at my community's Al Rashid Mosque next month, the very same one I spoke about in our history.
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