Honourable Senators, the seventh Congrès mondial acadien took place from August 10 to 18, 2024, in Clare and Argyle, Nova Scotia. This region of my province is home to a host of small Acadian villages that proudly displayed flags and lobster traps and buoys painted in the Acadian colours. Here are a few of the interesting names of these villages: Pubnico, Surettes Island, Sainte-Anne-du-Ruisseau, Saint-Alphonse, Saulnierville and Grosses-Coques.

Excavations recently uncovered three new Acadian settlements in Annapolis County. At the world congress, three panels were erected for Village de LeBlanc, Village de Beaulieu and Village des Gaudet.

The congress featured shows, discussions and the Tintamarre, where thousands of Acadians marched through the streets of Yarmouth, but it also generated over $20 million in economic spinoffs, according to Kenneth Deveau.

Honourable Senators, the Congrès mondial acadien is also an affirmation that our Acadian ancestors, the first Europeans to settle in this country that would one day become Canada, were right when they decided to found a nation, a country. Despite the deportation, imprisonment and attempts to wipe us off the map of North America, we’re still here. We’re a model of resilience.

Visiting the Grand-Pré National Historic Park always brings tears to my eyes. Why? I hope that I will not get tears in my eyes today.

As I tread across this land, the land of our ancestors, ransacked and burned to make way for the arrival of Orangemen and Loyalist settlers, I can’t help but think of what could have been: a people with a country, an Acadian people recognized as a nation among the great family of Canadian provinces and owner of the most fertile lands in Nova Scotia and the Maritimes.

The Acadians of Grand-Pré never celebrated Christmas in 1755. They were haphazardly piled onto boats and deported in whichever direction the wind was blowing. The Congrès mondial acadien, which brings together the Acadian diaspora, is an opportunity to rise above this injustice while reflecting on how we, as a people, must take our place today within the Canadian federation and the Parliament of Canada. I will close with the last paragraph of my book, a children’s story entitled The Magic Rug of Grand-Pré:

And if you go past Grand-Pré on Christmas Eve, around midnight, take a good look at the little chapel there. If you see lights and hear fiddles, guitars and mandolins, you’ll know that it’s the ancestors who have been coming back every year to celebrate the Christmas of 1755, ever since Constant and Rose-Marie hooked the last strands of wool on the rug of Grand-Pré.

Thank you, meegwetch.