Mr. Speaker, Asian Heritage Month is an opportunity to recognize the contributions Canadians of Asian heritage have made and continue to make to the social, economic, political and cultural heritage of Canada.

I organized Asian Heritage Month celebrations on Parliament Hill yesterday, with about 500 people attending and performances from 10 diaspora groups. I would like to thank the volunteer team, led by my friend Karunakar Reddy Papala, fondly known as KK. The team included Bangladeshi-Canadian Shah Bahauddin, Cambodian-Canadian Vuthy Lay, Chinese-Canadian Alex He, Iranian-Canadian Alma Rahmani, Pakistani-Canadian Dr. Syed Aziz, Sri Lankan-Canadian Anura Ferdinand, Taiwanese-Canadian Tony Fan, Tamil-Canadian Sivaruban Sivalingam, Vietnamese-Canadian Can Le and also, Jessie Xue, Monica Gupta, Puneet Aggarwal, Reaz Zaman and Subir Paul Chowdhury.