Hellenic Heritage Month Bill

Honourable senators, I rise with great enthusiasm and pride in support, as a friendly critic, of Bill S-220, the recognition of March as Hellenic heritage month. I want to, first and foremost, thank Senator Loffreda for taking on this matter with such joy as well. I’ve said often enough that Senator Loffreda is a wannabe Greek, but the truth of the matter is he is a true friend of the Hellenic community across the country. We claim him as one of our own.

Thank you, Senator Loffreda, for this important bill.

Many of you know my views when it comes to these ethnic heritage months. They are a symbolic recognition, but they are a recognition that means so much to so many people. When it’s all said and done, every single Canadian who lands at Pier 21 or at any airport across the country comes here with a dream. They want to fulfill the promise of being a great Canadian and to participate in building this great nation, a nation that has historically, from the French to the English and everyone in between, embraced everybody from all corners of the world.

Everyone who has come here from any corner of the world comes here because they are fleeing some kind of persecution or economic difficulties. The Irish left Ireland because of the potato famine. In World War II, we saw a flood of immigrants from Europe coming into this country.

Today, this bill is a culmination for my parents, who came here in the 1950s. They were immigrants who came to this country and embraced this country. Today, my mom is up there somewhere, I am sure, looking down. My dad is 92 years old. That whole generation came here with the same objectives — to succeed, to work hard, to contribute and to feel part and parcel of that Canadian identity. This bill is just one small measure of recognition that they’ve achieved that.

I recall my mother was once at a get-together down south. We were on vacation. There were a bunch of individuals there — Americans, of course, who sometimes lack an understanding of the nuances of our Canadian identity. They got into a discussion, and one of them asked my mom, “Well, where are you from?” My mom says, “I’m from Canada. I’m Canadian.” The woman said, “But what kind of Canadian are you?” My mom responded, “I’m a real, true Canadian.” For her, that was very important. For her whole life, she was so proud of her Canadian identity.

That generation who came here was proud of their ethnic background and of the Hellenic values they brought with them, the values that Senator Loffreda talked about of hard work, civil responsibility and philanthropy, but they also wanted to integrate. They wanted to make sure that, at the end of the exercise, their children, whom they wanted to give a better opportunity, would be recognized as true Canadians.

It started with Juan de Fuca, the first Greek who landed in Canada, in 1592. Many might not recognize that the Juan de Fuca Strait was found by Ioannis Phokas, a Greek explorer from the Greek island of Cephalonia. He landed here and found the Juan de Fuca Strait in 1592. That is how far back Hellenic roots are traced in this great country of ours.

Of course, we saw a plethora of Greeks arriving here in the 19th century. Many, as I said, came after World War II, in the 1950s and 1960s. They worked hard. They did tough jobs in the railways, in the food industry, in agriculture and construction. They often did the jobs that others did not want to do. That is the story that can apply to so many immigrants from so many groups and at various times of this history.

Again, where my mother is and where thousands of other Canadians of Hellenic descent are today, I don’t think they celebrate just the fact that the Greeks gave birth to democracy. We gave birth to Parliament, and we gave birth to the concept of the Senate and democracy, where “power to the people” meant more than anything else — these were all wonderful principles — mathematics, science and on and on. But they sit up there, and they look down, and they say that their efforts were worthwhile because they see Canada now.

They see a Canada where, on the Supreme Court of Canada, you have Justice Andromache Karakatsanis. You have judges like Justice Peter Pamel and Justice David Stratas in the Federal Court of Appeal, Justice Ria Tzimas. We have parliamentarians, former ministers like Tony Clement, MPs like Costas Menegakis and Peter Fragiskatos. Now we have Leo Housakos. The name Housakos in the Senate is not that big a deal because I am actually the fourth senator of Greek descent. Many have come before me. There is more than one Hellene in the Senate today. Senator Boudreau, many of you may not know, is of one-eighth Hellenic origin. Of course, for us Hellenes, when you are one-eighth Greek, that is significant; it overpowers all the other parts.

There are great professors in this country, like André Gerolymatos at Simon Fraser University, or SFU. He is no longer with us, but he founded the second-largest Hellenic studies department in the world, at SFU in British Columbia.

Alex Anthopoulos is a great general manager who has managed many Major League Baseball teams. Nick Kypreos played in the NHL. Alexandre Despatie is a great Olympian. The list goes on and on of Hellenes who have been involved in all walks of life.

Vassy Kapelos is a great broadcaster every night. I hear she shits too much on the Conservative Party, but that’s a whole other story. I still love Vassy.

Of course, Nik Nanos, a great pollster in this country, also traces his lineage back to the Hellenic community. The list goes on.

There are great entrepreneurs as well. Mike Lazaridis invented the smartphone; that’s who we have to blame for the fact that we are always connected.

We have great cabinet ministers, like Christos Sirros, at the provincial level, and right across this country.

I can go on and on and speak of all the great contributions that Hellenes have made to this country. The truth of the matter is that this bill is a recognition of not first- and second- and third-generation Canadians of Hellenic descent, like myself, because we are the most privileged. From the day you are born and are being raised in this country as a Canadian — I don’t care where you came from — it is the ultimate of ultimate privileges. My mother felt like that. My father, who is 92 years old today, still feels like that. But this recognition pays homage to all those who were not born here but who chose to come here or came here because of circumstance. They made a great contribution, and I thank them for their contribution. Canada thanks them for that contribution.

I will share with you a final thought that has basically defined who I am and everything I do. In Greek, there is a word called philotimo. It is enshrined in you from the day you are born because you don’t want your mother or father to call you aphilotimo, which is the opposite of philotimo. It basically means honour: Honour your community. Honour your family. Honour your past, your present and your future, but honour your whole society that you live in.

There is no real translation for the word philotimo. But the Greeks who came here had it; they practised it; they left a trace and a mark in this country.

This bill is a small recognition of that. Thank you, colleagues.

Thank you.

No, this is a place of Parliament. We’re allowed to speak freely. At the end of the day, Vassy Kapelos is a friend of mine. Maybe the words could be used differently. I’m a little disappointed that she is hard from time to time on my political party, but that is, again, her right as a journalist. I think she is a very good journalist, but I was just expressing in jest that I thought she’s a little bit too hard on my party.

I think Vassy won’t be that hard on me in return.

Senator Simons, you’ve been here long enough to know that there is no list of parliamentary language that is not parliamentary here in the Senate. It’s at the discretion of the Speaker. Everybody who heard the speech recognizes there was no mal-intent in terms of the words I used toward Vassy or anybody else. We’ll allow the Speaker to determine what is parliamentary or not. Last I checked, you haven’t been summoned to be the Speaker of the Senate.