P.E.I. Lebanese community reflects on its past as Canada marks 1st heritage month

Canada is celebrating its first-ever Lebanese Heritage Month. For some members of the Lebanese community in P.E.I., it's a recognition that's been a long time coming.

Earlier this year, Parliament unanimously passed legislation making November a time to recognize and honour the contributions of Lebanese people across the country.

In P.E.I., the local Lebanese community will be commemorating the milestone by raising Lebanon's flag at a city hall ceremony in Charlottetown Saturday.

More than 700 people in P.E.I. identify as being of Lebanese descent, according to the 2021 census. That's out of 210,000 people across Canada.

Paul Haddad, a member of the Canadian Lebanese Association of P.E.I.'s board of directors, said the first Lebanese people came to P.E.I. more than a century ago. Most of them didn't know English and had to work as pedlars selling items door to door, he said, but eventually they transitioned into other trades and professions.

"It takes a long time, over 100-and-some years, to get to this point, to be recognized in Canada as an important part of this society," Haddad said. "It's a very proud thing, really."

Haddad said Lebanese culture and heritage is "everywhere you go," from Lebanese food to people who've made important contributions in fields like law, medicine, engineering and business.

In P.E.I., Joe Ghiz became the first premier in Canada of non-European descent in the 1986 general election. His son Robert Ghiz served as premier from 2007 to 2015.

The annual Lebanese levee, which started in the 1960s to celebrate New Year's Eve, has grown into an event that draws hundreds of people every year. After a two-year pandemic hiatus, the event came back last January.

"This year, it should be even bigger and better," Haddad said. "This is a special year. We're celebrating Lebanese Heritage Month for the first time ever.... We'd like to see everybody at the levee."

Olinda Gossen's family moved from Lebanon to Canada in the early 1960s. She first came to P.E.I. about a decade later, during her honeymoon.

"We're still here," she said. "I met my husband in Lebanon.... He didn't speak English and I didn't speak Arabic very well either, but we communicated. I learned the Arabic language from him, from my friends in P.E.I., and from listening to Lebanese music."

Gossen was born in Brazil, the country with the largest community of Lebanese people outside Lebanon itself. She said she's done everything she can to keep her culture alive, including passing it down to her four children and six grandkids.

"I learned to cook and the language, and the dance," she said.