Speaking notes for The Honourable Jason Kenney, P.C., M.P. Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism

At the Canadian Citizenship Challenge: “Are you Smarter than a 10th Grader?” Gatineau, Quebec, October 19, 2010

As delivered

Thanks very much, Marc. It’s great to be here on this beautiful day on Citizenship Week at our national Museum of Civilization and great to see all of you guys from Grade 10 from Immaculata High School. Welcome. I am delighted to be taking part in the Historica-Dominion Institute’s Canadian Citizenship Challenge.

To begin with, I’d like to congratulate the Institute for its tireless efforts to encourage and help Canadians of all ages and all backgrounds to learn about, understand and appreciate our Canadian citizenship, identity and history.

And so it is fitting that we are gathered here at the Canadian Museum of Civilization – one of our country’s finest and most extensive repositories of Canadian history. And it is particularly fitting to be here during Citizenship Week, a time to reflect on what it means to be Canadian.

In the words of one of our former Prime Ministers, John Diefenbaker, “,I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country.” And indeed, as Mr. Diefenbaker added in his speech 50 years ago: “This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and for all mankind.”

This year, Citizenship and Immigration Canada is inviting you and all other young Canadians to celebrate Citizenship Week by joining the conversation on Twitter and Facebook. Newcomers and established Canadians alike, young and old, are invited to share their views on Canadian citizenship and discuss our rights and our responsibilities.

This year’s theme of ‘Our Citizenship’ means that in becoming a Canadian citizen, no matter where you immigrated from, Canadian history becomes your history and Canadian values become your values.

Citizenship is a trust that we inherit from previous generations and pass on to the next. To paraphrase John McCrae’s celebrated poem, In Flanders Fields, which appears in the Citizenship Guide Discover Canada, “To you we throw the torch / Be yours to hold it high.”

Last November, I was proud to launch Discover Canada, our new citizenship guide that is required reading for anyone seeking to become a Canadian citizen. We would like new citizens to know about their country so we’ve made the material in the new study guide more comprehensive in scope and more beautifully illustrated because Canada is a country of great vibrancy and colour. We encourage them to familiarize themselves with our country’s history, its military contributions, its symbols, values and democratic institutions.

This past June, with funding from Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Historica-Dominion Institute launched this Canadian Citizenship Challenge – an exciting initiative that links to the Government of Canada’s actions regarding citizenship.

The Challenge encourages students from high schools across the country to read the new citizenship study guide and take a mock exam based on it.

The Challenge is a terrific idea because it can put young people in the shoes of those who choose to become citizens of Canada, challenging them to do something we ask prospective citizens to do.

So today I’m pleased to be here to host a special edition of the Canadian Citizenship Challenge called Are You Smarter than a 10th Grader?, inspired of course by the popular TV game show. The rules are simple. Two members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery that Marc has introduced, David Akin and Kady O’Malley, will compete against two classes of Grade 10 Civics students in a game show format where they will have to correctly answer questions similar to those found in the Citizenship Exam.

We believe it is important for everyone to know more about how our country became what it is today. That’s why I encourage students across the country to take the challenge and it’s why I value the leadership of groups such as the Historica-Dominion Institute which encourages Canadians to engage and to understand who we are and from where we came.

Thank you again to the Institute for its contribution towards this goal. I also want to thank the students and educators from Immaculata who have joined us this morning and our officials from CIC who have done great work in moving forward our Citizenship Action Plan and all those who have taken a part in today’s events whether as participants or spectators.

Thank you. So let the games begin. (Applause.)