Ontario [Canada] : Bharat Mata Mandir in the city of Brampton in collaboration with Hindu Forum Canada celebrated Hindu Heritage Month.
Several federal and provincial parliamentarians, the mayor city of Brampton, and city councillors participated in the event.
The politicians stressed the importance of Hindu Heritage Month. Liberal MP Chandra Arya urged the Hindu diaspora to fight against rising Hinduphobia.
Arya marked Canada’s first Hindu Heritage Month beginning in November to acknowledge and celebrate contributions made by Hindus to make the country strong and prosperous.
Conservative MPs Scot Aitchison and Eric Melillo assured their assistance to the diaspora in regard to building a cohesive multicultural mosaic of Canada.
Second-term elect Mayor Patrick Brown briefed about creating Gita Park in the city. MPP Michael Tibollo, MPP Sheref Sabawy and MPP Hardeep Grewal also graced the event.
Hindu Vedic Scholar, Jeffery Armstrong was the keynote speaker of the event. He warmth the emotions of over 150 participants through his speech and commitment to Dharma.
The event included classical Indian dances also.
The Canadian House of Commons had passed a unanimous resolution moved by Arya earlier this year to have November proclaimed as the Hindu Heritage Month.
According to Statistics Canada, as reported in the 2021 Census, Hindus rose from 1.0 per cent to 2.3 per cent (close to 830,000 people) of total Canadian population from 2001 to 2021.
Hindus now comprise 4.1 per cent of the Ontario population.
The celebration comes months after a series of verbal and physical attacks on Hindus and their properties in the North American nation.
Arya has been a vocal critic of hate crime incidents targeting Indians and has strongly criticized instances of vandalism at Hindu temples, as well as the desecration of Mahatma Gandhi’s statue in the country.
In Canada, the month of May is observed as Canadian Jewish Month, October is observed as Canadian Islamic Historic Month, and April is celebrated as Sikh Heritage Month.
Canada officially celebrated November as its national Hindu Heritage Month to acknowledge the significant contributions of the Hindu community in the multi-cultural country’s growth story.
The aim of heritage month is to celebrate and acknowledge the significant contributions of the country’s large chunk of the Hindu community in different walks of life including science, education and medicine, law, politics, business, culture and sport.
The month of November was earlier recognized as Hindu Heritage Month by the Canadian province of Ontario government, as per Bill 56. (ANI)
