Thank you, Madam Chair.
The claim my honourable colleagues are making on citizenship ceremonies is not true; it's misleading. I think that they should not be playing politics with this, because this is really important.
May 23 last week, when it was Citizenship Week, was very emotional for me. For the first time after becoming a member of Parliament for Brampton Centre, I had an opportunity to be present at a citizenship ceremony in Mississauga, where 96 people from 36 countries took the oath, and I witnessed it. That was an emotional moment for me, because it's the first time after becoming a citizen that I was at an oath ceremony in person.
During Citizenship Week, which was last week, my colleagues from Peel region and across the country attended many citizenship ceremonies that were in person, so saying that in-person ceremonies are not happening is not true and is misleading. For me, a citizenship ceremony is really important. I still remember when I took my own oath as a citizen of Canada.
I would respectfully request my colleagues not to mislead Canadians on this and to tell the truth. Last week, we had 105 in-person ceremonies where 13,500 new Canadians took the oath, which is amazing. Every month, I believe, we have over 275 in-person ceremonies where 30,000 new Canadians take the oath. I believe that one of my colleagues here was at a citizenship ceremony in Ottawa in person. Saying that there are no in-person ceremonies is misleading; it's not factual.
I have signed about a thousand letters in my riding to new Canadians to congratulate them on becoming a Canadian citizen. I just wanted to share my experience. I would also like to thank all the citizenship judges and staff. They put so much effort into preparing these in-person citizenship ceremonies. In fact, in Mississauga, there's a citizenship ceremony scheduled for Canada Day. An in-person citizenship ceremony is scheduled on Canada Day. It's happening everywhere across the country. Coming out and misleading Canadians and playing at politics feels disrespectful to those staff who are putting effort into preparing ceremonies. We should appreciate them.
In fact, I remember that time in Harper's time when the Conservative side wanted to make citizenship two-tiered. Our now Prime Minister and the Liberals came out and said that a Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian.
I just wanted to put on record, Madam Chair, that we have in-person ceremonies all across the country. In fact, one organization in my riding will be partnering with a citizenship judge to have an open-air, in-person citizenship ceremony in Brampton Centre. I just wanted to put that fact on the record.