February 15, 2009 - 22:28
Proud to be a new Canadian

15 Feb,2009

OTTAWA — The 70 people standing in the Great Hall of the Museum of Civilization couldn’t possibly have been Canadian citizens.

They waved flags.

They spoke glowingly about Ottawa.

And they knew all the words to O Canada.

Canadians? No way, eh.

Yet as they raised their right hands and repeated the oath of citizenship intoned in French and English by Judge Thanh Hai Ngo each person formally embraced the culture of Mackenzie King and the McKenzie brothers.

“We are celebrating the expansion of the Canadian family,” said Judge Ngo.

Some had good reason to celebrate.

Elena Blain-Ely was born in Sibiu, Romania as one of 13 children in the twilight of tyrant Nicolae Ceausescu’s rule. At 10 months old, she was placed in an orphanage where she would be tied to her bed when there was no one to watch her.

She was adopted with her brother, Michael, at age 4.

“When we came into Canada, the first time I came outside I was afraid of everything, including the wind because I’d never been outside before,” she said.

Her parents kept her Romanian citizenship so she could make a more meaningful decision to become Canadian.

“We needed to understand what Canada was all about,” she explained.

In spite of the “tolerance” and “shared achievement” liberally sprinkled through the ceremony’s speeches, she found integration difficult and dispiriting.

“I was bullied every single day for about five or six years,” she said of her time in public school. “They figured that because you were from another country and you weren’t coloured — you weren’t black, you weren’t white, you were just in between — they figured, ‘Oh, this is too weird.’”

Ms. Blain-Ely wasn’t the only freshly minted Canadian to have encountered the uglier side of their adopted country. Soukaina El Ghrabli, formerly of Morocco noticed she was frequently passed over for work in favour of twin sister, Nihad. The difference? Soukaina wears a hijab.

Or rather, wore.

“I took it off … I felt really strange, so that’s why I decide to not wear it now. Maybe later, but not now,” said Ms. El Ghrabli.

Even the Canadian-born and bred Mountie who presided over the ceremony could relate.

Const. Ross Tylor is Métis and was called “frog” as part of the only French-speaking family in his part of small-town Saskatchewan. His great-grandfather was executed for his role in Louis Riel’s rebellion.

“My great-grandfather knew exactly what time of day he was going to die,” he said. “Not that he was psychic — the judge told him.”

But neither Const. Tylor, nor the El Ghrablis nor Ms. Blain-Ely have a moment’s hesitation in affirming their pride for their home and native land.

Const. Tylor doled out lapel pins and the El Ghrablis, in their first year at the University of Ottawa, didn’t hesitate to call Canada the “best” country in the world.

As for Ms. Blain-Ely, the 21-year-old is “bursting with life,” in the words of Gaby Smoes, her former math teacher who was on hand for the ceremony.

Ms. Blain-Ely graduates from Adult High School in June and will move on to Carleton University where she hopes to become a teacher.

With her Canadian citizenship she can get a passport to return to Romania and visit the family she has not seen for over 15 years.

“I owe a big thank you to my parents,” Ms. Blain-Ely said.

Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney handed out flags and spoke during the ceremony.

“Our long history is now your history,” he said. “People of every conceivable background have bonded together to create one of the most diverse, harmonious successful societies on earth.”

Thirty-eight different countries gave up citizens in Friday’s ceremony.

Their loss is Canada’s gain.

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen