Mr. Speaker, it was my pleasure to host and celebrate Kurdish Heritage Day on Parliament Hill yesterday with hundreds of Kurdish Canadians.
Recently, I visited Kurdistan Region of Iraq, which, like Canada, is a wonderful place where people of several different religious faiths coexist peacefully. I met Yazidi people at camp Sharya and Yazidi community leaders at their holy temple in Lalish.
The foreign minister of KRI, Safeen Dizayee, who is visiting Canada, attended the first Kurdish Heritage Day on Parliament Hill.
I would like to recognize and thank Shawn Najim, president of Kurdish Diaspora Center, Ottawa chapter, for his immense contribution in making the event a grand success. I also thank the leaders of the Kurdish-Canadian community, who came from many different places in Canada and made this event memorable.