Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak to this bill with great pride. I consider myself to be one of the most fortunate people in the whole world. I am very fortunate because of my ancestry. I am very fortunate to have come from such a strong family that taught me everything that I believe makes me successful today.
I want to talk about a number of people during my speech. I am going to make this very personal, because I do believe that this is a personal issue. I am going to go way back. I am going to go back to 1927, the year a young man named Arcangelo arrived at the port in Halifax from Italy. He came here with no money, but he came to a land of hope where he believed things would be better and where he could build a better life.
Over the years he sent money back to Italy. He brought his family over. He brought his sister and brother. His father came. They built a life and they built families. He landed in northern Ontario at a place called Britt, close to Parry Sound. He worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway. He married a woman named Marguerite. They had a family of nine children.
The War Measures Act came into place in 1939. They had been living in Canada for 12 years at that point. It had been 12 years of working, 12 years of building, 12 years of serving and 12 years of being a Canadian, but at that point, they became enemies of the state. It was a sad time in our history and it never should have happened. What did that cause? What came from that? They were under police surveillance. The people who lived in those neighbourhoods in that small town all knew that they were the Italian family. That was the Italian family and they were to be hated because they were enemies of the state. I will talk about the effects of it.
A young man was born on September 28, 1942. His name was Enrico Giuseppe. He grew up in that small town. He went to those small schools, where people knew that he was of the Italian family. They were the Italians. One did not want to be Italian in Canada then because of what had happened, because we shamed them, because we made them feel like they were lesser Canadians who should not be respected.
Arcangelo was my grandfather. Enrico Giuseppe was my father. He changed his name to Henry. He is one of the proudest Canadians I have ever known and he taught me to be proud of this country. He did not harbour any ill will, because the Italians of this country overcame that incident. They overcame that travesty and injustice that was committed against them by demonstrating a work ethic, a commitment and a love for this country that is to be celebrated by all Canadians.
What is disgraceful about this legislation is that it divides people. It tries to conjure up old wounds to make them look like they will never heal. Italians forgave. My family forgave. They went through a horrible situation. My father's family were beaten up. They were in fights. They had a tough childhood. They went through difficulty. It was hard getting jobs because of what they were, not who they were. They suffered discrimination the likes of which is similar to what one would hear for any other race or group living in Canada or anywhere else. It was because of this travesty that was committed against them.
My grandfather, Arcangelo, worked almost 50 years for the Canadian Pacific Railway. He was so proud. In the late 1950s, he learned to speak English. He had to teach himself. My grandmother spoke five languages, as a matter of fact. He learned to speak English. People always ask me why I cannot speak Italian, given that my grandmother could speak five languages. In the 1940s the last thing people wanted their kids to be was an Italian in Canada, so they hid it.
My father never said his name was Enrico. It was Henry. In fact, everybody knew him as Hank, because if he said his name was Enrico, and Enrico Giuseppe especially, he probably would not have much of a future. His father never even spoke to him in Italian, and my grandfather could barely speak English. My grandfather's English was so bad that when my wife first met him, she thought he was speaking Italian to her, but he was speaking English.
My grandfather and grandmother raised their nine children as Canadians, proud Canadians. They spoke English. They worked hard. They built lives. They contributed to this society and they are one of many families who did. There are millions of Canadians of Italian origin living in this country. The overwhelming majority of them have forgiven for this. They do not want to go back. They are proud Canadians.
When the Prime Minister speaks I think a lot of people listen. I know I listen when the Prime Minister speaks.
In 1990 Prime Minister Mulroney did something that nobody had done before. I think even my Liberal colleagues across the floor who have brought forward this legislation, which is very divisive, would acknowledge that when they were in power in the 1940s, when the Liberals were in power in the 1950s, in the 1960s, in the 1970s, in the 1980s, in the 1990s, when the Liberals were in power in the current millennium, they did not do this. Now there is a private member's bill on the issue. Where were they for the almost 70 years that occurred? Where were they?
In 1990 Brian Mulroney said, “On behalf of the government and the people of Canada, I offer a full and unqualified apology for the wrongs done to our fellow Canadians of Italian origin during World War II”. That was a full acknowledgement that what had been done was wrong, that what had been done should never have happened, and frankly, what that meant to the Italians who lived in this country, who called this country home, what that meant to them in their lives from the years that extended beyond that.
When my father met my mother, my mother was forbidden to see my father because he was an Italian. That is awful, but that was the reality. That was the situation.
What is wrong with this bill? Why will I not support it? My name is about as Italian as it gets, and when a person runs for office with an Italian name in a city like Peterborough, it is quite an accomplishment to get elected. It would not have happened back in the 1940s. Why will I not support this bill? Because it takes the country backward, not forward. It does not represent the Italian community of Canada. This comes down to money. The Liberals are trying to boil this down to making an issue of, “The Government of Canada says it will give us $5 million. We want $12.5 million”. That is nonsensical.
I started out by saying that I feel that I am the most fortunate person in the world. My grandfather felt he was the most fortunate person in the world. My father felt that he was the most fortunate person in the world. His brothers and sisters felt that they were the most fortunate people in the world because this country was their home and they were proud this country was their home.
They do not like this because they are Canadians. They are not Italian Canadians. They are not Canadians from Italy. People do not say that I am from Italy. I am from Peterborough. I was born in St. Joseph's Hospital. I am as Canadian as it gets. They do not want to be broken down and divided into chunks by someone saying they are Italian Canadian, they were discriminated against and they should get $12.5 million. They do not want it.
This is a disgraceful piece of legislation. It divides Canadians at a time when we need to pull together, fight together and combat everything that is coming toward us, whether it is the economic crisis we are going through or all the other uncertainties in the world. Canadians of all cultural backgrounds need to pull together. This bill divides them.
