City of Ottawa recognizes April 30th 2014 as Black April Day
For Immediate Release
April 16, 2014
City of Ottawa recognizes April 30th 2014 as Black April Day
OTTAWA – On April 16th 2014, the Honourable Senator Thanh Hai Ngo met with Ottawa City Mayor Jim Watson and a delegate from the Ottawa Vietnamese community to commemorate April 30th as the thirty-ninth year of the fall of Saigon.
“This proclamation not only remembers the victims of the Vietnamese War, but also recoginizes the Vietnamese-Canadian community of Ottawa, and the many survivors and refugees of the war, who have made positives and valuable contribution to the cultural diversity in the city of Ottawa.” said Senator Ngo.
In the early 1980s, the City of Ottawa spearheaded “Project 4000” and became the new home of approximately 4 thousand Vietnamese who arrived in Canada after navigating through deadly storms, pirate threats, diseases and starvation. According to the United Nation High Commission for Refugees, 250 thousand Boat People perished at sea looking for freedom.
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For more information:
613-943-1599
ngoth@sen.parl.gc.ca
www.senatorngo.com
Attachment: Picture of the Senator Ngo accepting the Proclamation from Mayor of Ottawa Jim Watson. 
Quote from Mayor Watson
“I am pleased to proclaim April 30, 2014 as Black April Day in the City of Ottawa. Ottawa’s Vietnamese community is a vibrant and admirable group, many of whom endured great hardship to arrive here as refugees. We are lucky as a city and a as country to have these Vietnamese-Canadians as residents and I am proud to make this proclamation in their honour as well as in the name of those who perished in the Vietnam war.”
For a summary on black April Day please click Here