Speaking Notes - The Honourable Monte Solberg, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, at a Citizenship Ceremony

Mississauga, Ontario, August 12, 2006

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Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, honoured guests, and especially our new Canadian citizens.

This is a great day. As you know, new Canadians bring a unique combination of skills and talents to our country, and as a native-born Canadian, I couldn’t be more grateful. But for a country to be successful, it’s never enough to just have talented computer programmers, bus drivers and school teachers.

What every country needs to succeed are people who understand what it means to be a citizen.

For a country to succeed, new Canadians, and those of us who were born here, need to commit to Canada, to our way of life, and to our society.

Today, we are in Mississauga, one of the most diverse cities in the world. In fact, more than 40 percent of people living in this area were born in other countries.

Despite that remarkable diversity, for generations, we have enjoyed remarkable harmony. Dozens of different cultures, beliefs and religions have lived together and worked together and have created a society where everyone really does have the chance to get ahead.

Mississauga knows that better than anywhere else. Mississauga has been the launching pad for so many successful newcomers, but let me talk about one in particular: Sam Kang Shin-Bong. After only six years in this country, Sam was able to save enough money to buy a farm near Newmarket, specializing in oriental vegetables. But it gets better. In addition to that farm, he has since added a processing plant. Each year, his company, ≴Kimchi Canada Farm,” produces 40 tonnes of Korean pickled vegetables in 18 different varieties.

Sam sells his products here in the Golden Horseshoe of Ontario. Sam is living the Canadian dream.

But what is it about Canada that helps people like Sam succeed?

We succeed as a nation because, whether we articulate it or not, Canadians have bought the idea that where we come from isn’t important. Or, as someone once put it, what we wear on our head isn’t nearly as important as what is in our head, and in our heart. It’s not about the clothes we wear or the food we eat. It is about the fact that we accept at a core level that we are equal people with the equal right to exist, and to worship and to live our lives. It’s about accepting that men and women are equal before the law, equal partners in society, and just as important, equally responsible for upholding and promoting these ideals to our children and grandchildren.

In short, even before they were written down in our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the acceptance and practice of these ideals are what it has meant to be a Canadian citizen.

A Canadian citizen believes in the equality of every person without regard to race, religion or creed.

A Canadian citizen embraces democracy and personal freedom.

A Canadian citizen upholds the rule of law.

And, a Canadian citizen works to make a contribution to his or her community.

And when we do all of that, the result is a free, open and peaceful society.

But today, we all know that there are those in the world who see a free society like Canada as an enemy. However, we must also be aware of another threat to our way of life. I worry that today, too many of us are simply indifferent to the values that make us a free and great nation.

In a world of so much uncertainty, could it be any more clear that as Canadians we have been given a great privilege? New Canadians and those of us who were born here both have an obligation to show our gratitude for that gift by remembering that we are not just taxpayers, or users of social programs, or just the 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 with all the rights and responsibilities that that entails. And that brings me back to Sam.

In a society where we are all conscious of, and agree to live by, a few core values, anyone who works hard, saves their money and plays by the rules can succeed. Anyone can be like Sam. That is the great Canadian dream and I suspect it is why many of you came here.

Each of you is now a Canadian citizen. You are now officially part of the Canadian community. I congratulate you and I invite you to celebrate Canada by making it an even better country than it is today. That is what it means to be a citizen. That’s what it means to be Canadian.