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Paris, Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Parliamentarians and friends of Canada, my husband, Jean-Daniel Lafond, and I would like to thank you for such a warm welcome.
Mr. Speaker, I am deeply moved by your words and would like you to know how delighted we are to be in France, a country that is dear to our hearts for many reasons.
We find ourselves among familiar faces.
I have family here, my own and Jean-Daniel’s, who is originally from France. We even have a house in Poitou-Charentes, where we have turned for many years to relax and reenergize.
We also have an extended family here in France. More than friends, you are nothing short of sisters and brothers in language and culture.
For we can trace our history back to the same roots.
A history that dates back in particular to Samuel de Champlain’s voyages in the Americas.
A history of endurance, of resistance, and yes, of stubbornness.
A history that we are celebrating together this year.
Four centuries ago, the French language and culture put down roots in what was then known as New France, in what had been dubbed the New World.
That language and culture blossomed. They flourished and were enriched by a unique contribution, in particular the encounter with the Amerindian peoples, who are our deepest roots in the Americas.
And today, strengthened by these encounters and a mingling of cultures, the French presence in the Americas is an incredible resource that we should each and every one of us treasure and celebrate, on both sides of the Atlantic.
Though the bonds uniting Canada and France are old, solid, fraternal, they have been invigorated by the celebrations marking the 400th anniversary of the founding of the City of Québec.
My presence here and this journey that will take me, my husband and my daughter from Paris to Bordeaux, through Bény-Reviers and La Rochelle, is a sign of the friendship that binds us to you, the people of France, beyond time, beyond borders, and across the great expanse of the ocean.
During this visit, we will have the opportunity to join you in commemorating the end of one of the darkest chapters in our history, the abolition of slavery.
The great-great-granddaughter of slaves, I cannot remain indifferent to the legacy of racism and intolerance left behind by decades of segregation and slavery and that continues to be felt in our communities, at times openly, at times more insidiously.
I was deeply moved by Fabrice Hyber’s magnificent work, Le Cri, created in commemoration of the abolition of the slave trade and slavery.
The fact that it will be on permanent display in the gardens of one of the largest democratic institutions in France makes it all the more poignant.
An open ring, like a promise of hope; a closed ring, like a call to vigilance; the base at once an anchor and symbolic of the bonds of slavery.
I see in these efforts to remember an opportunity for us to look more lucidly at the lessons of the past, but even more than that, to hold more fervently than ever to the great strength that is our determination to live together, [translation] “standing tall and free,” as the late Aimé Césaire once said.
Living together. Is that not the greatest challenge facing our societies in this age of unprecedented globalization and openness?
The time has come to rethink the world in terms of the ties that bind us, rather than borders that separate us.
And what better way to reaffirm those ties and to celebrate them than with the culinary arts—an art form that you, the French, have mastered?
As the great epicurean Brillat Savarin said, [translation] “the pleasure of the table is for all ages, for all conditions, for all countries, for every day.”
So let us dine in a spirit of pleasure, warmth, solidarity, and friendship.