Mr. Speaker, all this month, Canadians have been celebrating Tamil Heritage Month from coast to coast to coast.
At the University of Toronto Scarborough campus, Tamil Heritage Month was marked by a $2-million endowment to the Tamil Worlds Initiative by Dr. Ravi Gukathasan of Digital Specialty Chemicals. This generous gift will allow the university to expand Tamil studies, including digital archiving, scholarships, and a post-doctoral fellowship.
Dr. Gukathasan came to Canada at the age of 18 with his parents from Jaffna, Sri Lanka. In 1986, he obtained a Ph.D. in chemistry from UTSC and established Digital Specialty Chemicals, one of the top enterprises in Scarborough, currently employing 21 Ph.D.s.
What a way to mark Canada's 150th birthday and the first pan-Canadian Tamil Heritage Month celebrations, by enshrining the study of the Tamil language, culture, and people at one of Canada's top universities. I am proud to welcome to Ottawa Dr. Ravi Gukathasan and Dr. Bruce Kidd, principal of UTSC.