Thank you, Chair.

I won't spend a great deal of time on this because Senator Enverga's Bill S-218 has been very well discussed in both chambers of Parliament, including in the upper house of course, where Senator Enverga tabled the bill originally and spoke to it just a month before his untimely passing while he was on parliamentary business in Colombia with ParlAmericas. Not a word of criticism has been spoken against the bill in either the upper house or the House of Commons. In fact, I was heartened, as I said, at the end of debate in the House that there was such enthusiastic and universal support for the bill, for a Latin American heritage month to be recognized, as Senator Enverga originally intended in the wake of Black History Month and in the wake of the recently passed Jewish Heritage Month, which again last night was celebrated in a very non-partisan way just up the street. All parties in the House enthusiastically participated and recognized and celebrated the contribution of the Jewish Canadian community in Canada.

This was Senator Enverga's second bill. He had a bill before the House in the last Parliament, which died at the election in 2015. For this one he reshaped it and expanded it. The original bill was called “Hispanic Heritage Month”. For this one he deliberately changed the name and the characterization to Latin American heritage month. He wanted to recognize the nature of our hemisphere, not only in Central and South America but also in the Caribbean, given the centuries of shifting, government shifting, control, colonization, and independence as it came. It includes the Latin romance languages Spanish and Portuguese and also those communities and languages that have been cross-pollinated through the Caribbean and now into Canada where, in fact, through Senator Enverga's expanded vision of those touched by Latin Americans and who would celebrate Latin American heritage, we would be looking at probably well over one million Canadians, a significant number of Canadians.

Yesterday, as members from all parties know, there was non-partisan representation behind the Honourable Irwin Cotler when he presented the expert report of the Organization of American States on the findings of crimes against humanity perpetrated in Venezuela. It was the same sort of non-partisan support that we saw in the celebration of the Jewish Heritage Month last night, and, I think, the same sort of non-partisan...even at this time of the year in the parliamentary season, where unanimity could be found without some of the quibbling, some of the amendments that we see put before other committees of the House to correct perceived shortcomings or unacceptable elements.

This is a very basic bill. It's a very simple bill. It follows exactly the other heritage month bills that Parliament in its wisdom has passed over the years. I understand there is an amendment before the committee but I would respectfully ask that the amendment be withdrawn, because if this bill goes back to the House and given the possibility of prorogation during the summer, then what I think is not only a worthy piece of legislation but also a legacy piece of legislation in Senator Tobias Enverga's name would be lost forever.

With that, I'm willing to take questions.

Peter Kent

Transcript

Discussions (0)