The official visit of the President of Italy's Chamber of Deputies, Hon. Laura Boldrini in Canada: a few more steps forward for Italy-Canada relations.

*Francesca Paolucci

Italy-Canada relations continue to record signs of approach in 2017: after the visit of President Mattarella, the President of the Council Gentiloni, the Undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Maria Elena Boschi, the Honorable Stefano Dambruoso, is the time of the President of the Chamber of Deputies. The Hon. Laura Boldrini flew to Canada to meet political authorities and Italian communities abroad (Toronto and Montréal).

When she first arrived in Canada on October 19, the Hon. Boldrini has immediately met the Italian-Canadian community at the Vaughan City Hall, where was organized a ceremony for the delivery, by the Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua, the keys to the city: a traditional award for cultural reasons, social and commitment civil. The President of Italy's Chamber of Deputies has focused on the problems that today's social reality presents us, from the phenomenon of migration, violence against women, misinformation and the change of world political order.

The President, on the migration issue, has always argued that integration is the path to a peaceful solution to the phenomenon and, on this occasion, also seized the opportunity to confront the Italian community in Canada, which thanks to the inclusive policies of the country, it has become part of a complementary and meritocratic mechanism, thanks to which the desire to respect the rules and to contribute to the progress of the country are factors of social and economic growth that favor the development. The final stage of the President's visit to Toronto, a landing place for Italian migrants, was the Costi Education Centre, a multi-service hub for Toronto's immigrants, founded by members of the Italian community on site to succumb to the lack of information of the post-war period, which ends the stage of institutional travel in one of the Canadian cities, the main destination for Italian migrants.

The Hon. Boldrini then went to Montréal, Québec, a region with a strong autonomy. Here, accompanied by the Ambassador of Italy in Ottawa, Claudio Taffuri and the Consul General, Marco Riccardo Rusconi, held a series of institutional and academic meetings, addressing the theme of welcome and integration. In particular, the President held a lectio magistralis at McGill University, entitled 'Greater European Integration to Face Global Challenges: the reception of migrants and refugees’, followed by a debate with about sixty teachers and Italian researchers at universities and research centers in Quebec, a province of academic excellence and rich of training and professional opportunities in this field. The visit of the Hon. Boldrini in Quebec continued with the meeting of the Mayor of Montréal, Denis Coderre, former Minister of Immigration in the Federal Government, with whom she discussed about environment, sustainability and urban centers as well as immigration, while at the time of a gala party of the Marche association ALMA, the President, met the Italian community of the place and delivered scholarships. The Honorable has not limited his visit to institutional and category meetings by including in his tour the Mohawk Indians Reserve in Kahnawake, expressing appreciation for the reconciliation policy conducted by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau against native Indian populations, better known as the First Nations.

The institutional visit to Canada has also scheduled set a stage in Ottawa, during which institutional meetings of excellence followed: Canadian Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen, on a visit to Italy last summer, the Minister of Environment and environmental changes, Catherine McKenna, the speaker of the House of Commons (lower house), Geoff Regan, the speaker of the House of Lords (the upper house), George Furey and, of course, the prime minister Justin Trudeau.

The exchange with the Canadian Prime Minister compared the two authorities on economic and trade relations and strategic partnerships on the issues highlighted by the two agreements signed by Canada and the European Union (Strategic Partnership Agreement and CETA) and on the problematic of the fake news, a battle carried out by the President who decided to intervene primarily in schools, through a digital education project aimed at students, in order to spread among the younger the importance of proper information. The initiative was highly appreciated by the Canadian premier as a testimony to the positive series of common intentions that are increasingly evident between the two countries, including the Trudeau conference at Montecitorio during his trip to Italy.

 

* Coordination and research Centro Studi Italia-Canada