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SPEAKING NOTES FOR
THE HONOURABLE MONTE SOLBERG
MINISTER OF CITIZENSHIP
AND IMMIGRATION

for the

Pier 21 Citizenship Ceremony

Halifax, Nova Scotia
August 9, 2006

Check against delivery

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Hello, ladies and gentlemen. I am honoured to be with you today to welcome Canada's newest citizens.

I am especially honoured to be here, for this is a very special place for this ceremony.

Between 1928 and 1971, more than one and a half million immigrants were welcomed into Canada through Pier 21.

During that period, much of the world was shaken by the Great Depression, devastated by the Second World War and imprisoned behind the Iron Curtain. And through it all, Canada is where the world came for a better life. Many came to Canada via Pier 21, now a national historic site.

Pier 21 reminds us that the world sees Canada as a symbol of the hope and opportunity that is the fruit of a free and democratic nation.

For those of us who have lived in Canada all of our lives, it is easy to take that freedom for granted. But, we must remember that many people who come to Canada have fled countries where the ruling regimes fear and even hate the idea of personal freedom. In those countries, the many are oppressed by the few. In so many countries, war, persecution, oppression and grinding poverty are everyday fare. That is the nightmare that much of the rest of the world must endure.

But it is different in Canada, and it always has been. A hundred years ago, Sir Wilfred Laurier, our seventh Prime Minister, said of Canada that “freedom is our nationality.”

Just last month, on Canada Day, right here on this stage, Thomas Mark and Mary Hawa Turay and their twin daughters Clara and Christina became Canadian citizens. Thomas and Mary left war-torn Sierra Leone 12 years ago. They lost everything, and even had to leave their daughters for two years when they first came to Canada. Thomas, now a professor at St. Francis Xavier University, says that living in this country has allowed his family to regain hope. “If you live here,” he said, “the sky is the limit.”

Today, in a world of so much uncertainty, could it be any more clear that as Canadians we have been given a great privilege? And we can show our gratitude for that gift by remembering that we are not just taxpayers, or the consumers of social programs or occupants of a spot on the map. We are something much more important than that. We are the free men and women of Canada. We are Canadian citizens.

We can show our gratitude for that high honour by living the way citizens should live. That means taking responsibility for our families, helping our neighbours, participating in our communities, voting in our elections and always and everywhere vigorously defending our freedoms. That is what it means to be a citizen.

Ladies and gentlemen, fellow citizens, today we stand on hallowed ground. For so many people from around the globe, Pier 21 stands for everything that is right and good in the world. As Canadian citizens, it is our job to ensure that our great nation continues to be that light in the window for the world’s oppressed, that symbol of hope that keeps them moving forward.

Each of you is now officially a Canadian citizen, you are now officially part of the Canadian community. I congratulate you, and I invite you to celebrate Canada. I invite you to celebrate Canada by making our country an even better country than it was when you first came here. That is what it means to be a citizen. Congratulations!