May is Polish Heritage Month! I was proud to second Peter Fonseca MP's motion to designate the month of May as Polish Heritage Month and May 3 as Polish Constitution Day.
Yesterday, I was pleased to attend a special flag-raising on Parliament Hill in celebration of Polish Heritage Month in Canada organized by my colleague, Dr. Helena Jaczek, the Chair of the Canada-Poland Parliamentary Friendship Group.
Polish Canadians have made, and continue to make, significant contributions to Canada. Throughout May, in communities right across Canada, including in Etobicoke Centre, we recognize and celebrate those contributions that are are reflected in Canada’s economic, political, social, and cultural life.
Joining us at the special flag-raising were H.E. Witold Dzielski, the Ambassador of Poland to Canada, Dominic Roszak, the president of the Canadian Polish Congress, and many other leaders in the Polish Canadian community.
Poland’s May 3rd, 1791, constitution was the first written constitution in Europe and one of the great democratic documents in European history. It was achieved at the height of Europe’s Enlightenment, but also at a perilous time for Poland. Imperial neighbours, including the Russian Empire, saw a free and democratic Poland as a major threat. Four years later, those empires would fully partition Poland, erasing the country from the map of Europe for 123 years, but not in the hearts of the Poles.
The May 3rd constitution is a major symbol of European Enlightenment and the struggle for independence against empire. And it symbolically connects to the famous Polish patriotic phrases that, with the return of violent authoritarian imperialism in Vladimir Putin and Russia, are still important today:
Za naszą i waszą wolność – For our freedom and yours.
Jeszcze Polska nie zginęła kiedy my żyjemy - Poland has not yet perished, so long as we still live.
