On May 18, the Canadian Egyptian Heritage Association once again hosted Canada’s largest Egyptian festival, the sixth annual Discover Egypt festival at Celebration Square in Mississauga. Over 28,000 people gathered to enjoy Egyptian music, listen to entertaining performers, eat traditional foods, and celebrate Egyptian culture. The following day, they visited the Egyptian Museum in Mississauga, where visitors had an opportunity to view many of the artifacts and learn about Egyptian history, with a light and sound presentation of the exhibits on display. This was a great weekend for Egyptian Canadians to showcase their food, music, culture and heritage to Canadians.

I look forward to seeing the festival again next year.

And of course, we are all preparing for Egyptian Heritage Month, which is fast approaching in July.

On a related topic, I want to acknowledge the important work of Philopateer Christian College, a school in Mississauga with over 420 students, which has been faithfully serving our Mississauga community for over 25 years. Throughout this time, they have educated more than 10,000 students. We celebrated their silver jubilee last week by watching a lovely performance by their students at the Living Arts Centre and enjoying a gala dinner.

I am happy to have watched and supported their resilience and success over the years. I thank them for their work supporting the Egyptian, Arabic and Coptic communities in Mississauga.

They will soon be opening a second campus in Ottawa, and I wish them well for the next 25 years.