In the west, above the great Unites States of America, you'll find a quiet neighbour of massive size but not so massive population. Its people are dispersed on its lands due to bad weather conditions, it has a black sheep as does any other family that feels left out of everything and it is known for it's growing multiculturalism. This country is Canada, my home.

I'm part of a visible minority but here in Montreal, people will never make you feel like you're a visible minority, they'll embrace your culture and want to be a part of it. Living here meant that I could have dinner in South East Asia, have coffee in the Middle East and have dessert in Latin America all in the same night. It also meant that I could observe my religion in peace and tranquility as long as I wasn't infringing on anyone else's boundaries.

In that respect, every year a conference by the name of Reviving the Islamic Spirit takes place in Toronto with the purpose of celebrating our religion and teaching us something new about it. It is open to anyone and everyone and always creates a huge crowd in the the weekend that it takes place. This year, Justin Trudeau made his way to this conference as a special appearance and a show of support for canadian-muslims.

As Trudeau made his way on stage, many were skeptical that he was only there for votes and that his motives were not wholly pure. Soon after he began his speech with peace and blessings upon his listeners though, many of those thoughts dissipated. He spoke of being proud to be part of such a great country and discussed his support for Muslims and other minority groups in Canada. His speech was extremely well researched and written, I can gladly say that he did his homework before making his appearance.

For those fifteen minutes that he spoke, he made us all realize that, although for the most of us we were either ourselves immigrants or our parents at least immigrated to Canada, we were all canadians. Our voices matter and our needs are thought of in government decisions. Many said that he's a politician and that this was typical of someone who is thinking of running for a high profile position soon. I find that hard to believe because what Justin did was go out of his way and go against many of his entourage's advice to speak in a conference that supports a religion that is greatly misunderstood in the media and around the world today. He decided to show his support for a group of people whom very few leaders and international players are willing to speak up for today.

So, today I say, let's be proud of our Country and it's warm embrace to each and every one of our religions and cultures. The maple leaf will always represent the true north strong and free but now it also represents multiculturalism and not only tolerance for it, encouragement and teachings of these differences as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMRj0JfhDnA