Greek FM Dendias Meets Greek Canadian Community in Montreal

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias paid a visit to the Hellenic Community Centre of Greater Montreal and thanked the Canadian diaspora for preserving Greek culture and language.

“I’d like to thank you from the bottom of my heart, on behalf of the Greek government, for preserving one of the things that bind us all together, and that is our language,” Dendias said.

“Because our language is this essence that carries a 3,000-year-old tradition with it,” he added.

I am deeply touched that I am among my compatriots who crossed the Atlantic. I' d like to thank you because you preserve our language, the essence that it has carried for thousands of years (from the address to the 🇬🇷 Montreal Community) pic.twitter.com/yY3VB1fGYR

— Nikos Dendias (@NikosDendias) March 16, 2023

“Seeing you here, beyond the ocean, being so successful but at the same time saving and passing down to the younger generation the Greek tradition, the Greek language, staying connected with the Greek Orthodox Church and our tradition, is so important,” the Greek Foreign Minister said.

In his visit to the Hellenic Community Centre of Greater Montreal, Dendias was accompanied by his Canadian counterpart Mélanie Joly.

The Hellenic Community of Greater Montreal (HCGM) has been serving the Greek population of the greater Montreal area (Montreal, Laval and South Shore regions) since 1906. For over 100 years, the HCGM has continuously been representing Quebec citizens of Hellenic Origin who have settled, and continue to settle, in the greater Montreal area.

The HCGM provides the population of Greek origin with a variety of services, including education, church services, social services and cultural events,

Its goal as stated on the website “is to constantly enrich and unify the members of our community, by bringing them together, responding to their needs as well as, strengthening our bond with other cultural communities in the Greater Montreal area. Our forefathers built their dream; we are preserving our heritage for generations to come!”

Dendias visits school and church of the Greek community in Montreal

The Greek Foreign Minister also visited the Hellenic Community of Greater Montreal’s École Socrates-Démosthène which provides youth with a multilingual education in French, English and Greek emphasizing mathematics and science.

Schoolchildren sang Greek songs.

Με χαρά και συγκίνηση άκουσα στο Μόντρεαλ τους μαθητές του Ελληνικού Σχολείου “Σωκράτης-Δημοσθένης” να τραγουδούν, υπό την καθοδήγηση του καθηγητή Δημήτρη Ηλία, τον «Τσάμικο» (Συνθέτης: Μάνος Χατζιδάκις, Στιχουργός: Νίκος Γκάτσος) – με την ΥΠΕΞ 🇨🇦 @melaniejoly. pic.twitter.com/pRo0jaAKxU

— Nikos Dendias (@NikosDendias) March 16, 2023

With five campuses and an annex in the Montreal, Laval and South Shore regions, École Socrates-Démosthène offers educational services including preschool (4 and 5 year olds), elementary (1 to 6) and high school (I to V).

Acknowledged by the Ministry of Education as a fully conforming school that completely possesses the three required criteria of human, material and financial resources, Socrates-Démosthène is also recognized as a great educational institution, and as a leader in multilingual instruction.

Dendias also visited the Church of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel, a Greek Orthodox Church in Montreal, together with his Canadian counterpart Mélanie Joly and His Eminence Archbishop of Canada Sotirios.

“A prayer was offered and a minute’s silence was observed for the victims of the accident in Tempi,” Dendias said in his post on Twitter.

At a lunch hosted by Greek Diaspora associations in Canada, the Greek foreign minister said he was very proud to be among the Greek community, among his compatriots, and to be able to see how the two worlds, the Canadian and the Greek, are being united around shared values and principles.