Canada

Habeeb Salloum speech in our October 12th, 2003 event 

Historian and Writer

Dear members and friends . . . .

 His Excellency Mr. Ahmad Arnous ambassador of Syrian Arab republic

 The Honorable Mr. Carl De Faria, minister of citizenship

 The Honorable Mr. Lincoln Alexander, lieutenant governor general

 The Honorable Mr. Sarkis Assadourian , Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Immigration

 His Excellency Mr. Yaser Kherdaji,

Other Honorable Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen... 

When I think of my life, I consider it as the prototype of the Canadian immigrant experience.  Call it ‘a sense of two worlds’ or the ‘unification of East and West’, Canada’s unique policy of Multi-centralism defies Kipling’s infamous statement that ‘East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet’. Even though I was born in the Greater Syria area in the early 1920s, I came to the western Canadian prairies with my parents when I was only a few months old.  

Subsequently, I spent my youth on the arid south Saskatchewan plains, growing up during the Great Depression, when the homestead, my father had been given, became a desert waste. During these formative years of my childhood, I always felt that I was different.  However, this was not of my own making.  Like all immigrants in that era, I had an inferiority complex in my inter-action with, what many of the immigrants called ‘the real Canadians’.  

Being often taunted by my schoolmates with the label ‘Black Syrian’, only added to this feeling of being somehow not equal to others. This, more than any other factor, drove me to search for my roots.  

What I found about Syria and its illustrious history made me proud of my ancestors and their civilization.  When my life’s odyssey began during my latter teenage years, the Second World War had begun and I joined the Royal Canadian Air Force and served both in Canada and the United Kingdom.  

Participating in my country’s principle of fighting aggression was part of my heritage, both as a Syrian and as a Canadian. Yet, my feeling of not fitting into Canadian society still lingered within me. Perhaps I was more sensitive than others, but I will never forget the year 1950.  

I was riding with my sister on a street car on Danforth Avenue in Toronto while I practiced with her my linguistic skills in Arabic - at that time I barely knew the language. Hearing us, the street car conductor stopped the street car and told us to get off, lecturing us that if we wanted to speak in a foreign tongue his street car was no place for that. 

This reinforced the feeling that I did not somehow fit in.  It was to be years later when Pierre Elliot Trudeau came to power and re-shaped Canadian history by instituting the federal policy of multi-cultures that I truly felt that I was a Canadian. 

The laws passed which made all national groups equal made me proud of both feeling at home in Canada and, at the same time, of my ancestry.  In other words, there was nothing wrong with living and respecting both worlds. A genius of politics, Trudeau realized that with multi-cultures immigrants could be Canadian, yet still be different.  

Without doubt, he knew that they would feel at home while they enjoyed their culture, but their children or children’s children would dance and sing themselves out of existence as they melted into the mainstream of Canadian society.  I can honestly say that Trudeau was instrumental in making me truly proud of being a Canadian. 

However, as proud as I am of Canada, I am also proud of Syria the home of my forefathers.  My identification is with both.  Here we have two countries with completely different histories but both striving for the retention of their heritages and self development. They are unique but similar in their agendas of independence and contributions to mankind.  

Just as Canada offers its natural beauty, scientific and technological creations and tolerance in society, so does Syria but with the addition of other venues. As Syria evolves into the 21st century, it offers much to the outside world.  A Western historian once wrote that Syria, the oldest name of a country that still exists, is the second home to every cultured individual in the world. 

Recent archaeological evidence has left little doubt that Syria is the fountainhead of Western civilization, encompassing the legacy of human development.  The secrets of the alphabet, agriculture, astronomy, domestication of animals and grain, geometry, literature, medicine, the invention of metal, music, religion, science and trade were all began in Syria, a land drenched with history.3,600 burial mounds of cities from antiquity, known as talls, dot the entire landscape - each a witness to successive human settlement.  In this cradle of ancient civilizations, it is said that  whenever one removes a stone, found beneath it lies a relic from a bygone age. 

They reflect some 39 known civilizations which go back at least 8,000 years. And modem Syria has kept pace with its history - a fact well-hidden from most North Americans.  In the last three decades Syria has made tremendous strides in its development into a modem nation. In 1961, we traveled from the Syrian port of Latakia to Aleppo, then on to Iraq.  At that time, when we left the Syrian coastal mountains behind, we journeyed through barren hills until we reached Aleppo.  Later, we traveled along the Euphrates River which was, then, edged by desert with the villages, built of mud, barely noticeable - blending almost into oblivion into the desert sand. 

Last year, I took the same route and those barren hills are now covered with olive trees and, as we drove along the Euphrates, I could not believe my eyes.  It was as if we were driving along the Nile Valley in Egypt.  Both sides of the river were green with fields of cotton and grain, amid which stood newly built towns.  It is the same in all parts of Syria. In the field of education, free from kindergarten to university, Syria today has one of the highest percentages of educated people in the Arab world.  And the country is exporting its graduates to the West.  In the medical field alone, some 8,000 former Syrian doctors now practice in the U. S., more than a 1,000 in Spain and the same number in Germany. 

With the increase in education has come the advancement of women.  From being hardly noticed outside the home for many centuries, today women are to be found in all fields of daily life.  Women in Syria account for 19% of the lawyers, 12% of the judges, 30 members of parliament or more than 12% of the entire assembly, two ministers in the government, about 10% of the diplomatic service personnel and, in the last few years, 42% of university graduates. 

More than most countries in the area, Syria’s story for the last two decades is a steady climb upward.  A highly developed network of railways and highways now span the country.  

Industrialization is expanding year after year and Syria is laying the basis for a large increase in tourism. In addition, in all parts of the country, the atmosphere is relaxed and safe.  During my last visit, traveling in every major urban centre, even late at night, I was never stopped by anyone or felt unsafe.  

Although many Western journalists attribute this to the iron hand of dictatorship, the stern hand of government alone does not tell the story.  Personal experience has taught me otherwise the people are the secret. In this ancient land, I have often, after asking directions, been invited to a home and offered coffee followed by the phrase ‘baytna baytak’ (our home is your home). 

In not only my view, but also in the opinion of the majority of travelers who have visited Syria, the people’s courtesy, dignity, kindness and hospitality are genuine. Not very many people are aware that Syria like Canada is a multi-cultural society. Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks, Kurds, Turks and numerous other nationalities, as well as Muslim, Christian and every other religious sect under the sun have total equality. 

This is attested to by, among others, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Pope John the second who, in the last few years, have visited Syria and have publicly stated that the co-existence of all religions in this country is without equal. With such a background - my nation, Canada, a vibrant and a welcoming country to people from all over the world and considered the best country in the world in which to live; and Syria, a land steeped with history, now quickly finding its notch in the modem age - my world looks bright indeed.

Habeeb Salloum

October 12, 2003

Presented at the ‘Syrian Community Centre of Canada’ at its inauguration in Toronto

Thank you