Citizenship ceremony celebrates new Canadians at Pan Am Park

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We’re now 100 days from the start of the Pan Am Games. Today, the host committee decided to celebrate at a uniquely Canadian event. Athlete’s and organizers were on hand today to mark 100 days to the start of the Pan Am games, but they were not the main focus. Today’s event celebrated Canada for those who are new to the country by hosting a citizenship ceremony inside the newly built Pan Am Park.

Hanieh Taghizadeh along with her brother and mother are each realizing their goal of becoming Canadian. They are just three of 99 people to take the oath of citizenship today, and they remind us of something many may take for granted. “There is no limitation to who you can be. That’s just incredible.” Hanieh and her family arrived here in 2007. Today the 21 year old is studying to become a graphic designer, a field that would have been closed to her in her native Iran. “There is a lot of depression” Hanieh says of her home country “there is a lot of sadness, and I am glad that I am in a place that I can be happy.”

So with just 100 days until the Pan Am Games begin both the organizers and supporters of the games say that a citizenship ceremony is the perfect event to celebrate the diversity of this nation.

“It doesn’t matter your gender, it doesn’t matter your religious interests, it doesn’t matter the colour of your skin, you’re welcome in this country” says Pan Am Games CEO Saad Rafi.

People from 58 countries became Canadian today, and they will soon be able to cheer both their native and adopted homes when the games start.

“Because it’s about inclusion, and that’s what our country is about and that’s what sport is about” says Olympic gold medalist Catriona Lemay Doan, who hosted today’s event. She hopes that Pam Am will have a positive effect on the country, starting with those who are at the event today “a lot of youngsters became new Canadians and maybe they’ll be inspired to be the next generation of athletes.”

But for some, like Hanieh, the celebration is much simpler. “I am really happy, really happy to be Canadian now.”