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May 21,2006 - May 28,2006 |
Our Country's Great Sorrow
By Annamarie Castrilli Former MPP
Originally Published: 2004-12-05
It can't be! Dan Iannuzzi dead! The giant of multiculturalism, a beacon of intense affection for the Italian community in Canada, a communicator par excellence, a peerless Canadian nationalist, a strong and resolute voice amidst mediocrity. This, and more, can be said of Dan Iannuzzi.
To me, like to many others, he is, he was a friend. As soon as I was elected to chair the National Congress of Italian Canadians, Dan Iannuzzi was among the first to welcome me with immediate warmth, despite our differences: I was a mint-new lawyer, he a veritable colossus of our community. Dan, however, was like this: a man who did not discriminate. One's ideas and commitment to them were what counted for him.
This is the example he set for a whole generation of activists. How many battles we fought together, beginning from our very first when we clashed with the Toronto Sun. A so-called journalist working for them wrote some intentionally offensive remarks targeting our community. Dan was immediately available with every resource he could muster, and eventually that 'journalist' disappeared from the pages of the Toronto Sun.
And then, his constant activities in favour of multiculturalism. We owe a lot to Dan in this field. Even before Pierre Trudeau launched multiculturalism as an official policy, Dan was at the helm of Corriere Canadese, giving voice not just to Italian culture, but to Italian culture as an important element of Canada. Thus, the newspaper's motto is "fiercely Canadian, proudly Italian". Afterwards, with his contacts with the Conservative Party, he advised Brian Mulroney's cabinet to pass Bill C-93, which became the current law on multiculturalism. That law, unanimously passed in 1988, turned Canada into the world's first nation to proclaim, in a national law, multiculturalism as a fundamental value of its society.
More recently, I recall our activities for the creation of an Italian House at the University of Toronto, ensuring that Italian language and culture keep their importance in Canada's most important university establishment.
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