Her Excellency the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson
Speech on the Occasion of a Citizenship Ceremony
http://www.gg.ca/media/speeches/archive-2003/20030628_e.asp
Rideau Hall, Saturday, June 28, 2003
I’m so happy to welcome you all here to Rideau Hall. What better place could there be to welcome you as you take your Canadian citizenship than this historic house which has been the home of the Governors General of Canada since 1864.
I want you to feel at home here because this is the house where all Canadians should feel at home ? as you look around this building inside and out you’re going to see really Canadian things, from the paintings on the wall to the perennial flowers blooming around you in the gardens. John Ralston Saul and I want you to feel right at home because it is your house.
This is the first time, during my mandate as Governor General, that I have held a citizenship ceremony here at the national house. It is very special for me and I hope it will be special for you!
There are all sorts of reasons for it to be special for you because those of you who are becoming Canadians today are marking the beginning of your full life as a citizen of Canada with all its rights and responsibilities, with the beginning of your full participation in the life of our country. You can vote and through that democratic exercise you can participate in the fullest possible way in your community, city and your province.
I hope you’re going to read Michael Ondaatje and Margaret Atwood, that you will pour maple syrup over everything, and will ski and skate, and that you will be decent and tolerant and kind to other people. You’ve made an active decision to take part in a country which is admired around the world for being peaceful, inclusive and tolerant.
From now on you are truly going to be able to sing “O Canada, Our home and native land” and I hope you understand what that means for you now as citizens. You’ve all come from other countries but now you’ve decided that Canada is going to be your country. Canada wants you, and therefore you must accept everything that Canada is. You must take all responsibility for the history of this country that now welcomes you and embraces you.
All of the history of this country is now yours, reaching right back to the Aboriginal Peoples who were already here when the first white people arrived. You accept all the history of your family by adoption. You embrace the triumphs as well as the tragedies of this country. Many of you come from countries which have had a recent tragic history, and perhaps you see in Canada a salvation from that. But don’t let that make you think that there have not been unhappy moments in our country’s history. That there isn’t still work to be done. Our Confederation is an evolving one. Our democracy is a continual responsibility.
Like of a large number of you here today, I came to this country as an immigrant and also as a refugee. My family and I chose to become Canadians in 1949. I feel that I have ever since then taken on the burden of the shameful treatment of Japanese-Canadians during the Second World War and the injustices done to our Black Loyalists in Nova Scotia in the 18th century. I also feel very proud of how we participated in victories of the First and Second World War and how instrumental we were in helping to draft the Declaration of Human Rights at the United Nations founding in 1947.
I feel proud that Canada welcomed the slaves fleeing on the underground railroad in the middle of the 19th century and I feel deep sadness about the treatment of many young Aboriginal people in residential schools. These things are all part of our history. No country is without its ups and downs. Canadian citizenship is not a buffet table, where you choose what you like and leave behind what you don’t like. Canadian citizenship is a fixed menu.
But there will be enormous benefits for you as Canadians. You realize this already. Last Saturday, I was at a graduation ceremony at York University in Toronto and I was thrilled to see a whole group of young Somalians graduate with their Bachelor of Arts degrees. They are the first-year of young Somalians to progress in this way, and it almost brought tears to my eyes because I realized how hard they had worked and how far they had come in the few years since their families brought them to Canada.
Each group of immigrants succeeds in successive waves. We have this opportunity to succeed here because this country has a public education system. That is why your children are able to go to school with other children and learn about what it is like to be Canadian. Our schools, which were set up right at the beginning of our country’s history, are free and Canada wants you to benefit from them. If you’re parents, I hope you’ll get involved with the school and meet the teachers and go to the parents’ days. If you’re young, I hope you’ll appreciate that in a public school you get to mix with all sorts of people and you’ll learn about their lives and their struggles and their triumphs.
One of our great writers, Malcolm Ross, said that in Canada, we all bring with us as immigrants “the impossible sum of our traditions”. And here we can keep as many or leave as many of these traditions as we like. Nobody forces us to do anything. And that is what you have opted for ? your individual choice within the context and framework of Canadian citizenship.
You are now free to live out a complete dream for you and your children. I hope you will not only be law-abiding, good citizens but that you will aspire to be great and interesting citizens. I hope that some day you or one of your children will be invested into the Order of Canada ? our country’s highest civilian order. Or that one of you will win a Governor General’s literature award, or a performing arts award, or any of the awards that are given in the name of the Governor General to recognize outstanding achievement and contribution to Canada. I hope that one of your children or grandchildren might become Governor General.
All of this is a dream but not in the sense that it is unreal. It is a dream that can be realized. Through your lives, through the lives of your children, you will help Canada to continue to be an extraordinary place. Now, you are one of us.
Speech on the Occasion of a Citizenship Ceremony
http://www.gg.ca/media/speeches/archive-2003/20030628_e.asp
Rideau Hall, Saturday, June 28, 2003
I’m so happy to welcome you all here to Rideau Hall. What better place could there be to welcome you as you take your Canadian citizenship than this historic house which has been the home of the Governors General of Canada since 1864.
I want you to feel at home here because this is the house where all Canadians should feel at home ? as you look around this building inside and out you’re going to see really Canadian things, from the paintings on the wall to the perennial flowers blooming around you in the gardens. John Ralston Saul and I want you to feel right at home because it is your house.
This is the first time, during my mandate as Governor General, that I have held a citizenship ceremony here at the national house. It is very special for me and I hope it will be special for you!
There are all sorts of reasons for it to be special for you because those of you who are becoming Canadians today are marking the beginning of your full life as a citizen of Canada with all its rights and responsibilities, with the beginning of your full participation in the life of our country. You can vote and through that democratic exercise you can participate in the fullest possible way in your community, city and your province.
I hope you’re going to read Michael Ondaatje and Margaret Atwood, that you will pour maple syrup over everything, and will ski and skate, and that you will be decent and tolerant and kind to other people. You’ve made an active decision to take part in a country which is admired around the world for being peaceful, inclusive and tolerant.
From now on you are truly going to be able to sing “O Canada, Our home and native land” and I hope you understand what that means for you now as citizens. You’ve all come from other countries but now you’ve decided that Canada is going to be your country. Canada wants you, and therefore you must accept everything that Canada is. You must take all responsibility for the history of this country that now welcomes you and embraces you.
All of the history of this country is now yours, reaching right back to the Aboriginal Peoples who were already here when the first white people arrived. You accept all the history of your family by adoption. You embrace the triumphs as well as the tragedies of this country. Many of you come from countries which have had a recent tragic history, and perhaps you see in Canada a salvation from that. But don’t let that make you think that there have not been unhappy moments in our country’s history. That there isn’t still work to be done. Our Confederation is an evolving one. Our democracy is a continual responsibility.
Like of a large number of you here today, I came to this country as an immigrant and also as a refugee. My family and I chose to become Canadians in 1949. I feel that I have ever since then taken on the burden of the shameful treatment of Japanese-Canadians during the Second World War and the injustices done to our Black Loyalists in Nova Scotia in the 18th century. I also feel very proud of how we participated in victories of the First and Second World War and how instrumental we were in helping to draft the Declaration of Human Rights at the United Nations founding in 1947.
I feel proud that Canada welcomed the slaves fleeing on the underground railroad in the middle of the 19th century and I feel deep sadness about the treatment of many young Aboriginal people in residential schools. These things are all part of our history. No country is without its ups and downs. Canadian citizenship is not a buffet table, where you choose what you like and leave behind what you don’t like. Canadian citizenship is a fixed menu.
But there will be enormous benefits for you as Canadians. You realize this already. Last Saturday, I was at a graduation ceremony at York University in Toronto and I was thrilled to see a whole group of young Somalians graduate with their Bachelor of Arts degrees. They are the first-year of young Somalians to progress in this way, and it almost brought tears to my eyes because I realized how hard they had worked and how far they had come in the few years since their families brought them to Canada.
Each group of immigrants succeeds in successive waves. We have this opportunity to succeed here because this country has a public education system. That is why your children are able to go to school with other children and learn about what it is like to be Canadian. Our schools, which were set up right at the beginning of our country’s history, are free and Canada wants you to benefit from them. If you’re parents, I hope you’ll get involved with the school and meet the teachers and go to the parents’ days. If you’re young, I hope you’ll appreciate that in a public school you get to mix with all sorts of people and you’ll learn about their lives and their struggles and their triumphs.
One of our great writers, Malcolm Ross, said that in Canada, we all bring with us as immigrants “the impossible sum of our traditions”. And here we can keep as many or leave as many of these traditions as we like. Nobody forces us to do anything. And that is what you have opted for ? your individual choice within the context and framework of Canadian citizenship.
You are now free to live out a complete dream for you and your children. I hope you will not only be law-abiding, good citizens but that you will aspire to be great and interesting citizens. I hope that some day you or one of your children will be invested into the Order of Canada ? our country’s highest civilian order. Or that one of you will win a Governor General’s literature award, or a performing arts award, or any of the awards that are given in the name of the Governor General to recognize outstanding achievement and contribution to Canada. I hope that one of your children or grandchildren might become Governor General.
All of this is a dream but not in the sense that it is unreal. It is a dream that can be realized. Through your lives, through the lives of your children, you will help Canada to continue to be an extraordinary place. Now, you are one of us.
