The city of Ottawa, the capital of Canada, has declared that the month of November is
Lebanese Heritage Month.
The motion was moved by Councillor R. Brockinton and seconded by Councillor M. Qaqish during the Ottawa City Council meeting on October 25th, 2017. This is to honour Ottawa’s
which has contributed significantly to “the City’s cultural, religious, economic, and political landscape.” Despite not being a big community, just like
, the Lebanese community is quite strong and active. There is also a provincial legislature, bill 60, being debated in Ontario to similarly declare November
Lebanese Heritage Month
for the province of Ontario. The motion reads as follow:
It’s important to note that despite the motion stating Ottawa is home to about 9,800 Lebanese, the number according to Statistics Canada is closer to 20,000. However, in reality, this number is much higher as the Census forms do not have the option to list multiple nationalities/citizenships. It also doesn’t account of Lebanese born in Canada and only hold Canadian citizenship – despite still being active within the Lebanese community. As Canada celebrates its 150th year since the confederation, it’s an honour to have the city recognize the contribution the Lebanese community has offered. There’s a Canada150 event on November 22nd titled Ottawa Welcomes the World. The Embassy of Lebanon is set to participate that day – which happens to coincide with the Lebanese Independence Day. Maybe this will bring us a set closer to getting
direct flights between Canada and Lebanon
!
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