TORONTO, CANADA – Effie Triantafilopoulos, Member of the Provincial Parliament (MPP) for Oakville North-Burlington spoke in the Ontario Legislature on March 25 to mark the Bicentennial of Greek Independence. Her remarks were just one of the ways that the Ontario Government recognized this important day.
MPP Triantafilopoulos’ Statement to the Ontario Legislature, March 25, 2021:
“Today is a special day for people of Hellenic descent in Ontario and for Hellenes around the world. March 25 marks the bicentennial of the independence of Greece. On this day in 1821, the people of Greece rose up against the Ottoman Empire in a revolution that gained them their independence. After centuries of living under Ottoman despotism, Greece, the enlightened land that gave birth to democracy, reclaimed its liberty and was a free nation once again.
“I am proud that my bill to proclaim March as Hellenic Heritage Month was passed by our government— the first and only jurisdiction in Canada to do so. We are proud of our history and the gift of democracy our ancestors gave to the world.
“The bicentennial marks the restoration of liberty to the land where Pericles orated to the people of Athens, to the land where Alexander was tutored at the foot of Aristotle, to the land where Hellenes stood for liberty at Marathon, Salamis and Thermopylae, where they rose up in 1821 with the cry, `Eleftheria i thanatos’ — `Liberty or death’ — and the land that shouted, `Oxi’— `No’ — to the armies of the Fascist invaders in 1941.
“While Greece is free, all nations can dream of freedom. Zhto i Ellada. Zhto o Kanadas. Long live Greece, long live Canada.”
Read more at thenationalherald.com
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