Bill C-573 (Historical)

International Mother Language Day Act

An Act to establish International Mother Language Day

This bill was last introduced in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session, which ended in August 2015.

Sponsor

Matthew Kellway  NDP

Introduced as a private member’s bill. (These don’t often become law.)

Status

Outside the Order of Precedence (a private member's bill that hasn't yet won the draw that determines which private member's bills can be debated), as of Feb. 5, 2014
(This bill did not become law.)

Summary

This is from the published bill. The Library of Parliament often publishes better independent summaries.

This enactment designates the twenty-first day of February in each and every year as “International Mother Language Day”.

Elsewhere

All sorts of information on this bill is available at LEGISinfo, an excellent resource from the Library of Parliament. You can also read the full text of the bill.

International Mother Language Day ActRoutine Proceedings

February 5th, 2014 / 3:10 p.m.
See context

NDP

Matthew Kellway NDP Beaches—East York, ON

moved for leave to introduce Bill C-573, an act to establish International Mother Language Day.

Mr. Speaker, I am very proud to be tabling a bill today calling upon the federal government to recognize February 21 of every year as International Mother Language Day.

On that day in 1952, five students of the University of Dhaka who were protesting the imposition of Urdu on the Bengali population were killed by police. They became the martyrs of the Bengali language movement.

In 1999, UNESCO recognized February 21 as International Mother Language Day.

Every year, I host an International Mother Language Day event in my riding. I do so in part because I see in it something fundamentally Canadian, because what allowed us to be and what keeps us as one is a respect for the importance of our mother languages, because the culture of our first nations is carried forward on this land in the form of over 60 distinct languages, and because we are home to languages spoken all over this world, including Bengali, the preservation of which inspired a day that, through this bill, we can make Canadian.

(Motions deemed adopted, bill read the first time and printed)