Honourable senators, as you heard, today I have the great pleasure of welcoming to the Senate Claudie and Lorette Deveau, their son Pierre, and Réal and Charelle Doucet, who are visiting from my hometown of Chéticamp in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

After being deported from Grand-Pré and other areas in 1755, Acadians were scattered around the world.

In 1785, 14 families from among the Acadian survivors were given the first land grant of 7,000 acres in Chéticamp. They had finally found a safe haven where they could settle and build a village.

Today, my village is made up of about 2,500 residents who still speak French. In my case, after going to school and working elsewhere for 12 years, the lure of my family, our traditional songs and our straight talk reeled me back in and I returned to my homeland.

The fact that Chéticamp is still a francophone community today shows the resilience of its citizens, including my guests today. Chéticamp is sandwiched between the English-speaking Scottish villages of Inverness to the south and Pleasant Bay to the north, and I remember sitting in my guests’ kitchen trying to figure out how to counter an angry tide against the creation of an Acadian school, when, up until that point, education had been offered in English only.

Chéticamp is known the world over for its hooked rugs, which are made with a crochet-type hook.

Did senators know that this art is directly related to the inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell? In 1924, an artist from New York who visited the Bell family in Baddeck, Nova Scotia, discovered the talent of the women in Chéticamp.

In the years that followed, she returned to the region to purchase hooked rugs, which she would resell in New York. Today some of these masterpieces adorn the walls of places like Rideau Hall, the Vatican, the White House and, of course, Chéticamp. You are all welcome to stop by my office in East Block to see one my mother made.

Annie-Rose Deveau, a true rug “hooker,” and mother and grandmother to my guests, was a researcher for a book later published on the history of hooked rugs in Chéticamp. She also taught the art with her husband for many years.

As a final point, a number of artists from Chéticamp have earned national and international recognition. Last week, Robert Deveaux and his band were nominated for a Félix award in the traditional album of the year category. Congratulations, Robert. That’s quite an honour.

I would like to close by inviting you to visit us in Chéticamp. You’ll be charmed by the beauty of the landscape, but above all, by the warm and unparalleled Acadian welcome.

Thank you.