Statement from Ontario PC Leader Patrick Brown to Mark the Journey to Freedom Day

The following is a statement from Ontario PC Leader Patrick Brown to mark Journey to Freedom Day:

“The Journey to Freedom Day Act was adopted by the Parliament of Canada in 2015 to commemorate the Fall of Saigon in 1975, and the humanitarian catastrophe that followed the end of the Vietnam War.

April 30th is a solemn day for many members of Ontario’s Vietnamese community; a great number of them originally found their way to Canada and Ontario after having fled Vietnam. However, it is also a day to celebrate the unprecedented and generous response of Canadians who helped refugees build new lives here.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, tens of thousands of refugees from Vietnam arrived in Canada – many of them in Toronto and Ottawa. Thousands of families, churches and community organizations throughout our province contributed to the successful resettlement efforts.

More than forty years later, Ontario’s Vietnamese community has grown and contributed immensely to our society, becoming an important part of our cultural fabric. 

I am proud that MPPs wore the community’s freedom scarves in the Legislature – a first in Ontario. 

I join with my colleagues in the Ontario PC Party in marking Journey to Freedom Day, and in thanking Ontarians of Vietnamese heritage for helping to make our province a better place.”

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDqNRI-Acb0&feature=youtu.be