30th anniversary celebration


The 30th anniversary celebration was held in the
pleasant surroundings of the Official Residence of the Canadian Ambassador in Munkkiniemi. The canopies, erected in case of rain, were more useful as sunshades
in the unusually warm fall weather.

Among the close to two hundred people attending, there were many present and former active members of the society as well as a number of new faces, invited especially for this occasion. The ceremonial duties were mastered by figure skating champion Petri Kokko, who announced the speeches and performances in his personal and compelling way and in not just one or two, but at times four languages.

As guests were still pouring in, Robert Piché, a Canadian university professor and a self-taught musician currently living in Tampere, got the evening off to a brisk start with a medley of Canadian and Finnish folk music, played on two different flutes. His wife Päivi joined him on one of the numbers with a dancing puppet.

The guest speakers were Adèle Dion, Ambassador of Canada to Finland, and Kaarina Dromberg, the Finnish Minister of Cultural Affairs. Dwayne Weleschuk spoke as the Chairman of our Society.

Ambassador Dion expressed gratitude to the Finnish Ministry of Education for its continued support of the friendship societies and stressed the importance of non-governmental relations between our countries. She also pointed out that while Canada has a long history in multiculturalism, Finland is today moving in the same direction and building upon the existing two national languages and the Sami culture.

Minister Dromberg called our attention to the warm summer drawing to a close, her first as the minister of cultural affairs. As she remarked, Finland is not only a country of a thousand lakes and summer festivals and but also a country of numerous non-governmental societies operating year round. Friendship societies, such as the Finnish-Canadian Society, are among the most important ones. There are well over a hundred of them and few are older than this society. Thirty years of activity gives us a good reason to celebrate. "Keep up the good work," she said, and continued to wish this society many prosperous years to come with a toast: "A votre santé—cheers!"

Dwayne Weleschuk reminded us of the ease with which Finns and Canadians get along with one another, be it a game of hockey or a joint initiative like the Finnish-Canadian Society. He extended special thanks to the new Canadian Ambassador for, not for only hosting this anniversary event, but for her support throughout the year. "Through support, participation, communication and innovation we are able to continue our website, to publish our bi-annual magazine, to organize Finnish-Canadian events and to develop new initiatives," said Weleschuk.

The rest of the evening was all music and entertainment. Les Frogs is a Finnish-Canadian group that has built a solid reputation on the French chanson tradition combined with contemporary local music. They are widely known in Finland, especially for their French renditions of J. Karjalainen's music. André Noël-Chaker, the lead singer and the writer of the French lyrics and translations, is a Montreal-born lawyer who came to Finland some ten years ago and formed this group soon after.

At the party Les Frogs also featured guest vocalist Helena Lindgren, later accompanied on one song by pianist virtuoso Marian Petrescu. Petrescu's own performance was called "Melodies of Oscar Peterson", a composition challenging enough for any world-class pianist. Petrescu executed an outstanding rendition.

By Heikki Kokkonen

December 02

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