Evidence of meeting #37 for Canadian Heritage in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was process.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Vice-Chair, Italian-Canadian Advisory Committee
— no umbrella organization in Canada that represents all Italians. There is no Italian community. There are Italians who—
Vice-Chair, Italian-Canadian Advisory Committee
There are a lot of Italian communities that are very different from one another. Does favouring one organization mean that it represents the Italian community? I am not sure about that at all.
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Before I get into my questions, can I first stress the difference between what was done to the Italian Canadian community in 1940 and the FLQ?
There is no similarity there--
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
These were just everyday people going about their lives who were pulled off the streets. They hadn't done anything. They were labelled as enemy aliens because across the ocean, where they had no contact at all, they picked the wrong side, mostly because they were afraid. It had nothing to do with the FLQ, nothing.
Bloc
Roger Pomerleau Bloc Drummond, QC
Four hundred people jailed, and no accusations, no accusations at all--
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
No, it's outrageous to equate them.
First of all, the problem with this bill, and the problem with even going through this process, is that we start to get away from historical recognition and we start to drive political wedges.
Mr. Di Iulio has indicated a couple of times that he's uncomfortable with the questions. He's uncomfortable with the questions because you're trying to take the Italian community and fracture it.
Conservative
Dean Del Mastro Conservative Peterborough, ON
Yes, absolutely. That's the problem with this bill. That's the problem with it.
The Italian community.... I'll tell you that my grandfather—and I loved him to death and respected him so much—came to this country with zero, nothing, nothing at all, and built a life. His whole family is successful. They worked hard. They have earned everything this country has provided them. They've earned it.
But they're all extremely proud Canadians, extremely proud, and never ever.... In fact, I clearly remember him telling me upon his return from Italy when he had gone to visit family that it was great to go back, but he knew that he lived in the greatest country on the planet. I think a lot of Canadians felt that way, including those who were actually here during the internment.
What a lot of people need to understand in this Parliament is that there were several waves of Italian immigrants into Canada. There were those who came before the Second World War, then there was a gap, and then there were a lot who came in the fifties, more who came in the sixties, a few who came in the seventies, and not many in terms of the bulk of the Italian community who have come since then. The experiences were different depending on when they came.
Certainly, those who came in the fifties and sixties, those who were here before them, and those who came later have worked to earn the respect of the Canadian people, because it was not always equal. They weren't always equal. There was a lot of discrimination.
As a kid, I was discriminated against because my name isn't very usual. I have a two-word last name; that's kind of odd. A lot of people couldn't spell it or pronounce it. With these types of things, you had to work for that respect. I'm proud to be the first person of Italian Canadian descent ever to be elected in my riding. In fact, I'm one of the few Roman Catholics to ever be elected in my riding--or at least of Roman Catholic descent.
I want to get to this issue of the promised $12.5 million from the Liberal Party. There were a lot of promises from the Liberal Party. We have Copenhagen coming up; they promised to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and inflated them by 35%. That was a promise and they signed a contract on that. They promised to establish a national day care program. They didn't do that. They promised to eliminate the GST. They didn't do that.
They were the government in 1940. They were the predominant government from the period of time from 1940 all the way through until today. They've had almost all of the time in government. From 1993 until 2005, they were the government. If this is a priority for them, if this bill is not simply about driving a political wedge and pulling people apart, then I don't know how else to frame it, because for 13 years they could have undertaken this.
It wasn't new. In 1988, Brian Mulroney said that on behalf of all Canadians he wanted to acknowledge and apologize to the Italian community. If that wasn't sufficient... That's what this bill says: that it wasn't sufficient.
Okay, but they were in government for 13 years. In 1988, there was a commemoration under CHRP of $10 million to the Taras Shevchenko foundation to commemorate Canadian First World War internment, so there was a model in place. If they didn't feel what Mr. Mulroney did at the time was sufficient.... For 13 years they did nothing on it, until they were on their deathbed. Also, they signed the Kelowna accord literally hours before they were tossed out for stealing Canadians' money.
Then they have deals like this as well. They come back with a bill that's going to cut groups apart. It names a specific Italian congress that is apparently going to represent all Italians when I know that's not true--because I know all the groups.
I've been to luncheons with the Canadian Italian Business and Professional Association in Toronto. I have attended those. I have attended events at the Columbus foundation. I've attended Italian clubs across this country. I've been in Vancouver for the Italian Canadian business entrepreneur of the year awards.
It's separate. There is no umbrella organization. To establish a fund that would divide people--and believe me, this bill would--is a step backwards. That's my view.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Gary Schellenberger
There was no question, so with that, we've made our rounds.
I thank all our witnesses for their answers.
I really appreciate your coming to this meeting today.
With that, the meeting is adjourned.