Buddhist Council of Canada Blog

Written By Jean-Guy Zakrevsky

A Missing Milestone in Inclusivity, Diversity and Multi-Culturalism

Buddhist Heritage Month in Canada

August 25, 2024

By

Dr. Durgesh Kasbekar

Member, Board of Directors, Buddhist Council of Canada

Canada hosts a diverse population. People from all faiths, ethnic origins and languages have made Canada their home. The country has given value, respect, and recognition to all segments of its population. This is also true for all its religious minorities. Canada celebrates the Hindu Heritage Month in November, the Sikh Heritage Month in April, the Canadian Islamic History Month in October, the National Indigenous History Month in June and Canadian Jewish History Month in May each year. But Canada has not been equally generous to Canadian Buddhists even though Buddhism is the fourth largest religion in the world and Buddhists have contributed to Canada's culture, diversity, multiculturalism, and development since their arrival in Canada in the 19th century. Buddhism has been practiced in Canada for over a century.

Since March 2023, I have lobbied and advocated with the federal government to designate May as the Buddhist Heritage Month. May would be the appropriate month as the most prominent festival in Buddhism, the Vesak, falls in May. The UN formally recognized the International Day of the Vesak in 1999, as seen in the link below.

https://www.un.org/en/observances/vesak-day

I have written to the Prime Minister, the Federal Minister of Canadian Heritage, my Member of Parliament, and the Deputy leader of the opposition party. I have also written to Ms. Teresa Wat and Michael Lee, the two Members of the British Columbia Legislative Assembly who were instrumental in convincing the BC government to declare 7 May 2023 as the Buddhist Culture Day in British Columbia. A considerable number of Buddhist monks and priests from BC helped Teresa Wat and Michael Lee in this effort. The Buddhist Culture Day will be celebrated on 7th May each year in BC.

By designating the month of May as Buddhist Heritage Month, Canadian Buddhists stand to gain in the following ways:

  1. They will be on par along with their Canadian Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, and Indigenous brethren who have their own Heritage months.

  2. They will be able to learn from the Canadian Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, and Indigenous communities as to how they network and coalesce within their communities to celebrate their months as Heritage months.

  3. They will also learn the different ways and methods other religious minorities adopt to showcase their culture, traditions and history to other Canadians during those months.

  4. They will be able to understand the presence and activities of Buddhist organizations in Canada other than their own and network with them. This, in turn will help them appreciate the vibrancy and the vigor of the Buddhist landscape in Canada.

  5. By juxtaposing and contextualizing their presence within the broader framework of other religious communities and the mainstream, Canadian Buddhists can aim to create synergy, partnerships, cooperation, alliance building, constructive collaboration, co-ordination, kinship, teamwork, holistic harmony and unity and,

  6. The non-Buddhist population of Canada will gain a better understanding of how the world’s fourth largest religion finds expression in our country.

On behalf of all Board members, the President of the Buddhist Council of Canada (BCC) – in November 2023, Dr. Eleanor Pontoriero (Upāsikā Mittā) wrote to the Honorable Canadian Prime Minister to designate May as the Buddhist Heritage Month. BCC Board members have also reached out to their respective Members of Parliament to lobby.

I earnestly and respectfully call upon the readers of this blog (Buddhists and non-Buddhists) to please write to their Members of Parliament and appeal for the same. You can do the following:

  • Find out who your local Member of Parliament is and e-mail them your request, or

  • Print out your letter and fax it to their offices in their constituencies and Ottawa, or

  • Print out your request letter and mail it postage-free to their offices in their constituencies and Ottawa.

  • You can also consider meeting your Member of Parliament personally with your request.

MP contact information: Current Members of Parliament - Members of Parliament - House of Commons of Canada (ourcommons.ca)

Jean-Guy Zakrevsky