International Mother Language Day Bill
Second Reading
December 9, 2021
Moved second reading of Bill S-214, An Act to establish International Mother Language Day.
She said: Honourable senators, I rise today to speak to Bill S-214, An Act to establish International Mother Language Day. International mother language day is not a legal holiday, nor a non-juridical day.
Honourable senators, let me begin by saying that this bill is important, and not just for people who speak several languages.
It is one important way we can strengthen Canada’s core values of inclusion, openness, equity and respect for all people and their identities. I strongly believe in these values. That is why I’m so incredibly passionate about the mother language bill which will legislatively enshrine February 21 as international mother language day across all of Canada’s provinces and territories, as have the UN and many other countries around the world.
I am passionate about celebrating one’s mother language. For my entire life, languages have been central to my own identity and my family’s collective identity in Canada.
As a girl, I was raised to be proud of Kutchi. It was my identity and I spoke Kutchi.
Now, as a practising Ismaili woman of African and South Asian descent, who was born in Uganda, studied in England as well as Canada, and now calls Vancouver home, speaking Kutchi remains part of my Canadian reality and identity. As a mother and grandmother, I carry forth the fight for recognition of all mother languages.
I fight more specifically for all of the young people who are passionate and proud about their mother tongue.
I fight to ensure that all young people, including my own grandchildren and great-grandchildren to come, know that their mother tongue is what identifies who they are. My own son learned our mother tongue and had several job applications because he spoke Kutchi.
When I speak to young Canadians, I feel empowered to continue my fight for the recognition, appreciation and celebration of all mother languages spoken across Canada.
Every day, my grandson Ayaan inspires and reminds me to keep up this fight. I would like to share with you what he submitted to the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology about why the former bill, and now this bill as well, are so important to him:
My name is Ayaan Jeraj and I am a 9th Grade student at the Prince of Wales school in Vancouver, BC.
This Bill is very important to me as both my sister and I are encouraged by our parents and grandparents to speak our mother tongue.
I feel the strength of my connection to my family, my friends and my country when I can speak in Kutchi. This Bill will ensure all people, of all ages in Canada will be able to speak their mother language.
Both my sister and I speak English and French, and just as much we want to make sure we can also speak Kutchi.
Senators, by officially recognizing this day on February 21, we are expanding awareness of one another and the way Canada and all the people in our country think. And that is our identity.
I was moved to hear another young person’s story, Anushua Nag. Many of you will know her as a staff member with Senator Dalphond. When she heard about this bill, she reached out to me and told me why it meant so much to her to speak her mother tongue and how important this bill was to her.
I am a child of immigrants from Bangladesh, and a Bangladeshi immigrant myself, but my mother language is not Bengali. The first language I learned to speak was Sylheti.
It did not take long before I lost the ability to properly communicate in Bengali, but Sylheti I retain as the principal means of communication with, and connection to, my parents, whom I cherish dearly.
It is difficult for me to limit my identity to only one language, even when I am asked on a form to confirm my “preferred” language. With my partner at home, I speak English. With my brother, I speak French. Most dearly, with my parents, I speak Sylheti. I identify with all three of these languages and each for very different reasons.
Anushua’s words should remind us that mother languages are part of our identity.
Sadly, we continue to see people in Canada and around the world suffering from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. In spite of our differences, I think it is essential that we continue to love and understand one another.
As a woman who fled my home to come to Canada, every day I wake up proud to be part of this great country. However, I know this gratitude cannot overshadow my awareness of the issues which racialized — and particularly Indigenous peoples — face on a daily basis.
Throughout the pandemic, we have seen the centring of Indigenous voices, ideas and perspectives in our collective Canadian society. Recent nationwide protests and marches for justice stand to remind us exactly why it is so important that all Indigenous peoples feel accepted when they speak in their mother tongues to their friends, extended families, communities and, most of all, when they are speaking truth to power.
For good reason, many of our traditional celebrations in Canada will never be the same. We are reckoning with our past, so as to pave the way for a brighter present and better future.
A huge part of this journey is about taking steps that embody truth and reconciliation. I believe this bill is a small but important step on this journey.
Currently, there is no legislation that explicitly protects or promotes any native languages apart from our official ones, English and French. Without a bill to explicitly recognize and celebrate the mother languages of all cultures and heritage, there is no real protection for any traditional language.
As I speak, more than 60, and as many as 70, unique Indigenous languages are spoken across Canada. Tragically, many Indigenous languages have disappeared. Every time a language disappears, a part of our Canadian identity disappears with it. Despite the laudable efforts of the government with Bill C-91, An Act respecting Indigenous languages, of all the registered Indigenous languages only four are considered safe from extinction.
My province of British Columbia is home to more than half of all Indigenous languages. Sadly, only 1 in 20 Indigenous people in my province are fluent in their language, and almost all of them are elders. Many of these languages date back thousands of years, but today we Canadians have allowed them to teeter on the verge of extinction.
As we all continue to work toward reconciliation in Canada, a mother language bill is a real way for the federal government to honour and uphold its long-standing commitment to building a strong nation-to-nation relationship with Indigenous — namely First Nations, Inuit, Métis and non-status — peoples.
A mother language bill ensures Canada openly acknowledges the contributions of all Indigenous languages spoken across the country and traditional territories and the role each one plays in allowing Indigenous peoples to freely speak in the language they were gifted at birth.
Honourable senators, over the past year and a half, I have really felt the strength of my bond with my family, friends and country when I have spoken to them in my mother tongue.
To me, that is why international mother language day is more than a bill. It is a day to celebrate the freedom to communicate in the language of your mother. It is your identity. Languages allow us to build new and unique relationships and promote the sharing of untold stories, tales of spirituality, compassion and humanity.
Particularly, as we begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel of pain caused by the pandemic, it is really uplifting to be able to speak in my mother tongue on Zoom every Saturday morning to my extended family around the world. Those conversations mean the world to me, and I wish nothing more than for every single person in Canada to feel free to not just speak but be proud of their mother tongue.
That is why I am raising the issue again today. I want each of you to know that I will persevere until this bill is passed.
Honourable senators, I had a very long speech that I have been making for five years. This time, as you can see, my speech is much shorter. But I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge my friend Senator Salma Ataullahjan. For the fifth time, Senator Ataullahjan, we will both be making the same speech.
I hope that this time, senators, you will support us on this bill. Thank you very much, senators.
Honourable senators, following Senator Mobina Jaffer’s example, I think I have a two-and-a-half-minute speech.
Honourable senators, I rise today to speak to Bill S-214, An Act to establish International Mother Language Day. Bill S-214 is a legislative proposal to designate February 21 as international mother language day. I would like to thank Senator Jaffer for reintroducing this and giving me the opportunity to speak again on the importance of proliferating mother languages.
As a country with multilingualism at its core, we need to recognize and understand the importance of preserving all mother languages. Professor Wade Davis put it more eloquently than I could when he said in the Canadian Geographic:
A language, of course, is not just a set of grammatical rules or a vocabulary; it’s a flash of the human spirit, the vehicle by which the soul of a particular culture comes into the material world. Every language is an old-growth forest of the mind, a watershed of thought, an ecosystem of social, spiritual and psychological possibilities. Each is a window into a universe, a monument to the specific culture that gave it birth and whose spirit it expresses.
I know first-hand the correlation between my mother tongue and my identity. Speaking Pukhto, or Pashto, is more than a means to communicate; it connects me to my ancestors; it allows me to understand the literature, art and poetry of my homeland.
It was for those reasons that I made it a priority to teach my mother language to my two daughters, Anushka and Shaanzeh. By doing so, I was able to share a part of my identity, history and culture with them. My daughters’ lives and my life have been positively impacted in numerous ways because of our ability to communicate in our mother tongue. That is worth celebrating every year on February 21.
Of course, we cannot speak about the importance of preserving mother languages in Canada without considering our Indigenous population, many of whom were forcibly stripped of their mother tongues. Honourable senators, the importance of mother tongues cannot be undervalued because we know that once a language dies, the knowledge and heritage it contains dies with it, forever diminishing our society as a whole.
As parliamentarians, we must encourage Canadians to celebrate and preserve our linguistic diversity. Bill S-214 fulfills these aspirations by raising awareness and promoting education of mother languages.
In closing, I would ask, honourable senators, that we consider the questions posed by Professor Wade Davis:
. . . But what of the poetry, songs and knowledge encoded in the other voices, those cultures that are the guardians and custodians of 98.8 per cent of the world’s linguistic diversity? Is the wisdom of an elder any less important simply because he or she communicates to an audience of one? . . .
Senator Jaffer, thank you for your tireless work on this bill or, as we say in my mother tongue, manana. Thank you, honourable senators.
Are senators ready for the question?
Is it your pleasure, honourable senators, to adopt the motion?
Hon. Senators: Agreed.
(Motion agreed to and bill read second time.)
