Madam Speaker, each year, on the third Monday of February, Canadians from coast to coast celebrate Heritage Day.
This year the theme for Heritage Day is Spiritual and Sacred Places, a theme firmly rooted in the soul and strength of community. I invite Canadians to reflect on the spiritual and sacred places in their lives as well as to honour the sacred places of others.
We can all do this by learning about, for example, Saint Joseph's Oratory in Montreal, the Al-Rashid Mosque in Edmonton, Canada's first mosque, and the many and diverse sacred places of Canada's first peoples by browsing Community Memories at the Virtual Museum of Canada or simply by visiting a nearby spiritual place.
Let us celebrate Heritage Day.