A Celebration of Canada

        What better way to spend July 1 than to explore what Canada has to offer at the City of Mississauga 's Canada Day Celebration? Led by a stalwart Venerable Miao Hsin, this is exactly how a small group of BLIA YAD of Toronto members and loving parents spent the sunny holiday.

        The official ceremony kicked off at noon with a Canada Day Parade featuring Girl Guides, the Peel Regional Police Honour Guard as well as the very talented Streetsville Pipes and Drums. One group called the “Mosaic” set up a scavenger hunt too. There was also a gigantic book sale organized by the Mississauga Central Library in addition to several slightly smaller booths, one of which was Fo Guang Shan Temple of Toronto's own largely successful book sale.

        For me, the greatest joy was to be able to discover hidden gems from my childhood – Calvin and Hobbes, Paddington Bear, Curious George, Robert Munsch, Where the Wild Things Are and The Polar Express . These were the books that I never got tired of reading at bedtime because the stories took me to so many exciting places and adventures, ones that I will never forget for years to come.

        However, the most memorable thing that I took with me from that day was not the ecstasy of reliving my childhood memories, but the sudden realization of just how lucky I was to be living in Canada . As Jennifer, Campi, Florence , Samantha, Thomas, Carmen and I were looking around after watching performances by different ethnic groups, we came across the display for Amnesty International. This international organization works to improve and protect human rights through the actions of ordinary people from around the world, and one of Amnesty International's most recent projects dealt with children in the Philippines . Many of them are raised in poverty and receive little education – if at all. A few of them live long enough to start their own families; most of them are forced to resort to stealing for a living and end up in unsanitary detention centers. Even though we all signed letters to petition for the children's rights, it made me feel ashamed because a little over two weeks ago I had celebrated the end of my high school exams, yet here were these children, halfway across the world, who could not afford going to school even if they wanted to.

        These tragic incidents would be unheard of in Canada . Here, we are blessed to be living in neither a war-torn country nor one at the mercy of unpredictable natural disasters, but in a country that strives to maintain peace around the world. We are blessed to be living in a country not known as a “melting pot,” but as a mosaic of different cultures and heritages. We celebrate both our similarities and our differences. Most importantly, we are blessed to have the freedom of speech and we are free to follow our own beliefs and values. Here in Canada , we not only accept or tolerate other people's religions, we respect them because they enrich our ever-growing ethnic diversity. Many people stopped by our booth to inquire about the activities at Fo Guang Shan such as the meditation and Mandarin classes – we ended up running out of business cards and monthly activity sheets! Lots of Venerable Master Hsing Yun's books were purchased too. It was wonderful to see so many people interested in learning more about Buddhism.

        All in all, I am proud to call myself a Canadian citizen. Happy Birthday, Canada , and congratulations on a job well done – we are the proof that people can get along together in harmony.

道心　合十

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