{"id":188718,"date":"2018-11-08T01:19:36","date_gmt":"2018-11-08T06:19:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=188718"},"modified":"2018-11-08T01:19:36","modified_gmt":"2018-11-08T06:19:36","slug":"house-commons-declares-june-filipino-heritage-month-across-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/11\/08\/house-commons-declares-june-filipino-heritage-month-across-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"House of Commons declares “June as Filipino Heritage Month” across Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In a historic\u00a0 proclamation, the House of Commons of Canada adopted Motion 155 declaring “June as Filipino Heritage Month” in Canada from coast to coast to coast (Shutterstock)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Filipino Canadians all over Canada have lots of reasons and rhymes to rejoice proudly and meaningfully today and next June, 2019.\u00a0\u00a0In a historic\u00a0 proclamation, the House of Commons of Canada adopted Motion 155 declaring “June as Filipino Heritage Month” in Canada from coast to coast to coast. The landmark unanimous vote\u00a0 of “290 in favour to none against” was taken on October 30, 2018, Tuesday,\u00a0 at 6:00 pm. in the Canadian Parliament in Ottawa across the political spectrum.<\/p>\n

Motion 155 was moved\u00a0 and introduced in the House of Commons by Honourable Salma Zahid, a Liberal Member of Parliament for Scarborough Centre , Toronto. In her privilege speech, MP\u00a0 Zahid\u00a0 reasoned out that in\u00a0 the opinion of the House of Commons,\u00a0“the\u00a0\u00a0government should recognize the contributions that Filipino-Canadians have made to Canadian society, the richness of the Filipino language and culture, and the importance of reflecting upon Filipino heritage for future generations by declaring June, every year, Filipino Heritage Month.”\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

Speaking with confidence, MP\u00a0Zahid explained that her private member’s motion , Motion 155 ” speaks to officially designating the month of June\u00a0as “Filipino heritage month across Canada from coast to coast to coast. I do this on behalf of a vibrant and dynamic Filipino Canadian community that is proud of its culture and heritage and equally proud of its new home, Canada, a community that makes immeasurable contributions to Canadian life”\u00a0<\/i>and citing official statistics said,\u00a0<\/i>the Filipino population,\u00a0since 2011 “has grown by 27% to 851,400\u00a0and is\u00a0now\u00a0“the fastest growing ethnic group in Canada .<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n

The Filipino people “have a rich and vibrant history and culture, and are making outstanding contributions to Canada. It is past due that we officially recognize the contributions of this community with its own heritage month, celebrating Filipino heritage month across Canada”, according to the proponent of the Motion\u00a0<\/span>These many contributions of Filipinos\u00a0 are\u00a0 continually recognized and greatly\u00a0 appreciated\u00a0 in all facets of Canadian society, government and the private sector. Filipinos are reasonably acknowledged to be hard workers, resilient, loyal, determined, and efficient performing their tasks productively as accountants, artists, athletes, businessmen, caregivers, dentists, doctors, educators & teachers, engineers, entrepreneurs, financial advisers, government personnel, health care workers,\u00a0 lawyers, politicians, midwives, nurses, pastors & priests,\u00a0 production workers, salesmen, scientists , singers, social workers and many more. Realistically, there are numerous success stories of Filipino Canadians adding to the narrative of Canadian way of life.<\/p>\n

Historically and legally , Motion 155, known as “Filipino Heritage Month” in\u00a0 the 1st Session\u00a0 of the 42nd Parliament was “Placed on Notice” on November 20, 2017; “Placed on the Order of Precedence” on June 4, 2018; “Debated”\u00a0 twice on October 1 & 25, 2018;\u00a0 and\u00a0 “Decision Made – Agreed To” on October 30, 2018. Since November 30, 2017 until March 19, 2018, there a total of\u00a0 19 Members of Parliament recorded as Seconders to the Motion.<\/p>\n

In urging full support\u00a0 for this recognition for Filipino Canadian heritage across Canada, MP Zahid\u00a0 asked\u00a0<\/i>\u00a0all her fellow Parliamentarians\u00a0 to support the motion and to join her next June for the first national celebration of Filipino heritage month. She thanked the many people who have been consulted, have offered their support\u00a0 with their petitions and pursued similar initiatives across Canada, especially in the City of Toronto.<\/p>\n

After much consultation , MP Zahid and his colleagues in the\u00a0 House of Commons\u00a0 choose the month of June because, on June 12, the Philippines will celebrate its 121st\u00a0 Independence Day.\u00a0 Next year also marks the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Canada and the Philippines.\u00a0 What a better way, many agreed,\u00a0 to recognize this milestone than to officially recognize “June as Filipino Heritage Month” across Canada. The rest is history !<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Filipino Canadians all over Canada have lots of reasons and rhymes to rejoice proudly and meaningfully today and next June, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":10359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-188718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-tony-a-san-juan","mauthors-oct"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}