STATEMENT - Celebrating Canadian Citizenship: Diversity, Resilience and a Shared Future Français
"Each year, Citizenship Week offers our country an occasion to reflect on the meaning of citizenship. Canada is a mosaic that includes Canadians of all backgrounds and cultures, and that holds at its centre the histories of Indigenous Peoples and our commitment to reconciliation. This week, and every week, we embrace the shared rights and responsibilities that come with Canadian citizenship and remember the common values that define us as Canadians. We also take this moment to recognize that our diversity is our strength and to collectively recommit to building a better future for all who live here.
"As Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, a proud Lebanese Canadian, and the daughter of immigrants, taking this week to celebrate our newest citizens is especially meaningful to me.
"It takes incredible courage to face the challenges and uncertainty of a new place, and to seek better opportunities and security for one's family. As Canadians, it is our responsibility to continue to highlight the value that immigration brings to Canada, and to protect the inherent rights and dignity of those who seek to call it home.
"I encourage people across the country to attend one of the many citizenship ceremonies open to the public this week. Being part of this important milestone in someone's life is an honour and a privilege.
"Every day across the country, Canadians find ways to show pride in their citizenship and exercise their rights as citizens, whether through volunteering in their communities, speaking up on issues of importance, learning our official languages, voting in elections, or celebrating national milestones. Each individual act is an affirmation of all there is to celebrate about being Canadian.
"To those becoming citizens this week: your stories, your skills, and your decision to make this country home strengthen our nation, and your contributions and resilience will help carry us all forward.
"This Citizenship Week, let us come together in celebration of our shared Canadian identity and all that unites us."
SOURCE Citizenship and Immigration Canada
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Vancouver Sun
20 minutes ago
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Waning cross-border travel hurting Canada's already beleaguered duty-free industry
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The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. 'It was very difficult. The business had many good years. I certainly didn't want to be in the position of calling an end to a business career, giving up, calling it quits, both personally and in terms of my late father,' Slipp said. At the store's peak in the early 2000s, Slipp said there were about 15 people on staff. In March 2020, he said he laid off four people and reopened after the pandemic with two employees. Late in the summer of 2021, Slipp said duty-free stores were 'all starting from zero to rebuild again.' By the end of 2024, his business was still down about one-fifth from where it was in 2019. Then Trump returned to the White House. From January to April this year, things got worse for Slipp's store, and he ultimately decided to close based on declining sales and traffic numbers. 'Just realizing that even after the U.S. administration changes down the road, in our industry, we do not expect the border traffic to change overnight as a result of that. We believe it's going to take years,' he said. Recent figures from Statistics Canada noted that return trips from the U.S. dropped again in July as Canadians continue to shun travel to the U.S. The number of Canadian residents returning from the U.S. by automobile was down 36.9 per cent on an annual basis in July, marking the seventh consecutive month of year-over-year declines. Barbara Barrett, executive director of the Frontier Duty Free Association, said the stores her association represents have been feeling the decline in traffic for months. 'I would describe our industry as being in a full-blown crisis, and we've been saying that for a number of months now,' she said. 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Edmonton Journal
an hour ago
- Edmonton Journal
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4 hours ago
- Vancouver Sun
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