Athens, 13 April 2022

President of Parliament meets with Speaker of Senate of Canada

"With Canada we are facing the same challenges and within this huge crisis that we are going through, we believe that the principles and values of freedom and territorial integrity, despite the barbarity, will at the end of the day prevail”. This was the statement made by the President of the Hellenic Parliament Constantine Tassoulas, welcoming to the Parliament the Speaker of the Senate of Canada George J. Furey, who is in Greece on an official visit, following an invitation by Mr Tassoulas.

As the President of the Parliament emphasised, “Greece and Canada have never been separated. They have always stood side by side. In both world wars. Even in Korea, at the height of the Cold War, while in Cyprus more than 20.000 Canadians served from 1964 until 1993 in the UN peacekeeping operations.” He added that “more than 350.000 Greeks live and prosper in Canada, worthy citizens of this vast country”.

Mr Tassoulas referred to the speech by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the European Parliament where he “condemned the barbaric and unprovoked Russian invasion in Ukraine and was one of the leaders of the Western world who expressed their unequivocal support to the afflicted Ukrainian people”, underlining that “one could subscribe to every single word, every single paragraph of his speech”.

For his part, the Speaker of the Senate of Canada said he was touched by the fact that the Canadian flag was flying over the Hellenic Parliament building. 

Mr Furey agreed with Mr Tassoulas on the severity of the challenges we are called upon to address vis-à-vis the war in Ukraine, pointing out that it would be an honour to address them in cooperation with Greece.

He referred to the 80-year anniversary of diplomatic relations between Greece and Canada, expressing the wish to develop cooperation between the two countries even further, people to people and country to country.

Present during the meeting also were the Chairman of the Greece-Canada Parliamentary Friendship Group Stavros Keletsis, the Secretary General of the Parliament George Mylonakis and the Special Secretary Vasillios Bagiokos and the Parliament’s Diplomatic Advisor Ambassador Constantine Economides.

Mr Furey is accompanied during his official visit in our country by Senators Raymonde Saint-Germain, Leo Housakos, and Tony Loffreda.  

At the end of the meeting the President of the Hellenic Parliament presented the Speaker of the Senate of Canada with the Parliament’s golden medal, depicting Goddess Athena on a seal of the newly-established Greek state, along with the honorary scroll.

The Speaker of the Senate of Canada was then guided around the building of the Parliament and the Exhibition “Beholding Liberty! At the Hellenic Parliament, two centuries later”.

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