Gatineau, Quebec
April 30, 2015
As delivered
Thank you, Senator. Good evening, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, colleagues from the House of Commons and the Senate. I am pleased to be here tonight to celebrate the launch of Asian Heritage Month and also to provide you with more details about the important announcement that Minister Kenney made earlier this evening regarding the 100 Year Journey project.
Before I do that, I would like to take this opportunity to thank our partner, the Ottawa Asian Heritage Month Society and their dedicated team of volunteers for organizing tonight’s launch. And many thanks to – as well to the Canadian Museum of History for hosting tonight’s festivities.
Asian Heritage Month gives Canadians the opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments and achievements of Asian Canadians from coast to coast to coast as well as their sacrifices of their ancestors who bravely left their homelands to seek a new and better life here in Canada.
As Minister Kenney said earlier, one of the many important voices in highlighting the stories of the South Asian community is Mehfil Magazine founded in 1993 by Rana and Minto Vig. It was the first full colour glossy magazine for the South Asian community in Canada. Mehfil, which means Gathering, was founded to both showcase the South Asian community, but also to promote cross-cultural harmony. It has consistently featured some of the South Asian community’s leading men and women from all sectors, including business, law enforcement, social work, politics and many others.
But also, importantly, Mehfil also became a platform for some of Canada’s leading non-Asian figures, including Peter C. Newman and Rick Hansen, making it truly a bridge between cultures.
One of the most important popular features in Mehfil has been its “Reflections” column, which captured the stories of individuals in the South Asian community. It was this column which helped to make apparent that there was an important need to capture the history of Canada’s South Asian community and its pioneers and that information about the history of South Asians in Canada was limited to the education system.
With that in mind, Rana Vig launched an important project, The 100 Year Journey, which compiled the stories of South Asian pioneers and their families. The title was chosen to represent the 100 years between Komagata Maru incident and the launch of that book.
Because of The 100 Year Journey, the inspirational stories of South Asian pioneers like Harnam Singh Hari, the first Indo-Canadian in Calgary, are now available for all Canadians to learn from.
The project has since grown exponentially, and as Minister Kenney announced earlier, the Government of Canada will contribute almost $200,000 to help The 100 Year Journey bring the story of pioneers to an even larger audience in multiple formats. Our contribution will allow The 100 Year Journey project to release an iPad edition of the book, launch a website that will enable ongoing story collection and access, and undertake a second release of the physical book. By the end of the project, an international audience will have access to the stories of the South Asian pioneers through the website, and schools will be able to adopt the iPad edition of the book in their curricula.
I thank Rana Vig and all those who are part of the project to bring the inspirational stories of our ancestors to the general public. And I encourage all Canadians to learn about the courageous pioneers who laid the foundation for Canada’s now thriving South Asian community and who contributed to the culturally-diverse country that is Canada. In fact, I wouldn’t be standing in front of you today as a minister in this government if it was not for the work and the sacrifices of our pioneers. And the Government of Canada is truly proud to be part of this initiative.
I am pleased now to introduce to you the man behind this project, Rana Vig, who will say – now say a few words. Please come up to the stage, Rana. (Applause.)
