Thank you, Madam Chair.
I will have to wait for CPC-37 to be distributed before I can read it into the record and explain its purpose.
Just so you know, Chair, there are also CPC-38, 39, 40, 41 and 42, and there is a 43rd one. That is it until we get into clause 2. I am just giving you notice now that we will stop and then move to clause 2.
On amendment CPC-37, I move that Bill S-245 be amended by adding after line 18 on page 1 the following new clause:
1.4 Section 24 of the Act is amended by adding the following:
Respecting holidays and days of significance to promote Canada's multicultural identity
24.1(23) Citizenship ceremonies may not be scheduled on Orthodox New Year.
Orthodox New Year is celebrated as the start of the new year in the Julian calendar for Christian Orthodox, Eastern-rite Catholic and Coptic Christian communities. The time is normally spent eating traditional dishes at home with loved ones, and they also attend a special New Year's Day liturgy at their churches. This typically happens about two weeks after Christmas....
I think it's on the Gregorian calendar. Forgive me if I have the calendars wrong, but it's a very important celebration, especially for Coptic Christian communities.
I just spent my weekend, especially Sunday, with the Coptic community in Montreal, and it is a very important holiday. It has been celebrated almost exactly in the same manner for over 2,000 years, including the music in their services and the practices and the liturgy, which are almost intact. They have not updated it in that amount of time.
If anybody is curious about what the practice would have been over 2,000 years ago, the music, the liturgy, the style of the churches, the contents and the traditions have basically not changed in that time.
It's an important day, and we should not be scheduling citizenship ceremonies that would conflict with a person's religious faith and obligations to attend these liturgies at their churches.
Thank you, Chair.