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Some members of the South Asian
community with MPP Raminder Gill (second from left) at the Queens Park
reception held in honour of South Asian Heritage Month.
Month of activities gets underway with Gill’s Queens Park reception
Toronto
— South Asian Heritage Month 2003 has begun with a packed slate of
over 50 events and an acknowledgement by Ontario MPP Raminder Gill of
the Caribbean contribution towards recognition of the event by the
government of Ontario. To kick off the month of activities, Gill
hosted a reception at Queen’s Park on May 1st and received the support
of members from all the major political parties, diplomats and
representatives from community groups including the Council for South
Asian Canadians.
He said that South Asian Heritage Month
was something all the 600,000 plus South Asians in Ontario could
celebrate, and he thanked the Indo-Caribbean community for inspiring
him to gain official recognition by the Government of Ontario.
Citizenship Minister Carl de Feria, Pakistan Consul General Ghalib
Iqbal, South Asian Heritage Month Foundation chair Harry Mann, NDP
Parliamentarian Gilles Besson and Royal Bank director Imtiaz Seyid
were among those who spoke warmly in support of the month of
celebration.
A flurry of events have marked the
beginning of South Asian Heritage Month 2003, the 106th anniversary of
the first appearance of South Asians in Canada in 1897. In that year
Indian soldiers from the Sikh Lancers and Infantry) passed through
Canada on their way home from Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee
celebration in London, England. They were specially impressed with
British Columbia, and on their return to India started the migration
of a people who now number over a million in Canada.
This is also the 165th anniversary of
the coming of South Asians to the Americas, which took place on May 5,
1838 in Guyana, and is celebrated as South Asian Arrival Day. Over
100,000 South Asians in Canada have roots in the Caribbean, with the
Trinidadian Dr Kenneth Mahabir being one of the first “second
migration” South Asians in this country. He came to Nova Scotia in
1908 to study medicine, and after graduation from Dalhousie University
in 1912 and service in World War 1, settled down in Halifax.
Following several cultural events on
Friday May 2nd, including one at the Royal Ontario Museum, the Vedic
Cultural Centre in Markham presented a major celebration called Bharat
Darshan or “Seeing India” on Saturday May 3.
A display/exhibition explored the
origins of South Asians in the Indian subcontinent, their languages,
religions and culture, and how they developed new
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Money now the problem
By Sandra Chouthi
Special to Indo Caribbean World
Port-of-Spain —
Money is the issue among doctors
and two chief executive officers in Trinidad and Tobago, except that
the former want more and the latter are being criticised for getting
too much.
In the last few weeks, Errol Grimes, CEO of the
Water Sewerage Authority (WASA), has come under heavy fire for his
monthly salary, (Can) $12,500, plus perks. This even though Prime
Minister Patrick Manning, in a letter to the WASA chairman Roland
Baptiste dated April 23, stated that Grimes’ salary had increased from
(Can) $9,000 even though the Public Utilities Minister had given
Cabinet the assurance that he had instructed that such a salary
approval had not been sought or obtained from the Public Sector
Negotiating Committee.
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Premier’s message on South Asian Heritage Month
On behalf of
the Government of Ontario, I am pleased to extend greetings to
everyone celebrating South Asian Heritage Month.
The people of Ontario honour and appreciate the work of the many
communities and individuals who have built our Province. The South
Asian community has made tremendous and significant contributions to
our development as a prosperous, culturally diverse and tolerant
society.
While most South Asians came to our country from India, many others
came to Ontario from such places as Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh,
Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, Mauritius, Singapore, Malaysia, Fiji, the
United Kingdom, Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana. Today, South Asians
make up a significant proportion of Ontario’s population and are proud
to draw upon their heritage and traditions, contributing to many
aspects of culture, commerce and public service throughout their
communities and our Province.
Many long hours are required to organize the events the members of
the South Asian Community have planned for this month, and I want to
recognize the hard work and dedication of the organizers and
volunteers who helped to make them possible. You can be justifiably
proud of your contributions.
Please accept my best wishes for a memorable and enjoyable month.
Ernie Eves, MPP
Premier, May 2003
Ethnic extremism: The politics of evil
The
largest ethnic organization in Guyana is the PPP/C political party.
Because of its majority Indian support base, it has won the largest
number of votes in every democratic election held so far. That is,
the party can
 "attract
popular support of their own ethnic kind". The evil steps in when,
as their supporters find, the PPP/C is not "looking out for their
ethnic kith and kin". They have abandoned them to wanton
ethnic/political criminality in order to support the lies that they
are multi-ethnic, that their government represents all Guyanese, and
that there is no need for inclusive governance. The party, terrified
to admit its ethnic origination, rushes to take care of every other
race group except Indians in order to disprove its own truth.
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Continued