{"id":613711,"date":"2026-04-19T03:53:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T03:53:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/613711\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T03:53:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T03:53:19","slug":"canadian-citizenship-ceremony-held-in-halifax-museum-an-emotional-celebration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/613711\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian citizenship ceremony held in Halifax museum an emotional celebration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Five-year-old Anaya was smiling and dancing as she waved a small Canadian flag during her father\u2019s Canadian\u00a0citizenship\u00a0ceremony Friday, unable to contain her excitement.<\/p>\n

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Her dad, Ashis Mandal, was among 30 new Canadians from 18 countries sworn in during a ceremony at Halifax\u2019s Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. Anaya and her mother Sneha Majumder were beaming as they watched Mandal take the\u00a0citizenship\u00a0oath.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so, so happy,\u201d Anaya said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all so happy,\u201d her mother added.<\/p>\n

The special ceremony held by Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab took place during Citizenship\u00a0Week \u2014 which falls between April 12-18 this year \u2014 a week the government says is to \u201ccelebrate the rights and responsibilities shared by all Canadian citizens.\u201d Friday\u2019s ceremony in Halifax included a prayer and drumming from Angela Doyle-Faulkner. It was presided over by\u00a0citizenship\u00a0judge Joan Mahoney.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI know that you could have chosen to live just about anywhere in the world and you\u2019ve picked Canada, and we\u2019re grateful that you did,\u201d Mahoney said during the ceremony.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Anaya Mandal waves a Canadian flag with her parents Ashis Mandal, right, and Sneha Majumder, as Immigration, Refugees and\u00a0Citizenship\u00a0Minister Lena Metlege Diab, welcomes Canada\u2019s newest citizens at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, Friday, April 17, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Riley Smith<\/p>\n

\u201cCertainly we\u2019re not a perfect country, but we\u2019re very fortunate to live in a democratic country where individual rights and freedoms aren\u2019t just respected, they\u2019re the foundation of our Charter of Rights and Freedoms,\u201d she said, adding that Friday marked the 44th anniversary of the Charter.<\/p>\n

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Mahoney said that sadly, these rights are not guaranteed in every nation.<\/p>\n

Mandal said it\u2019s an honour to be a Canadian citizen, adding that the ceremony marked a very special moment for their family. \u201cThis is definitely a memory we\u2019re going to carry,\u201d Mandal said.<\/p>\n

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He said their family left India and chose Canada for its people and culture. \u201cThe way Canadians live, value each other, respect each other. I wanted my daughter to grow in this environment \u2026. This is the reason we\u2019re here and I\u2019m very happy to be here,\u201d Mandal said.<\/p>\n

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Shomoukh Wael Mejjallid, 23, was born in Saudi Arabia and moved to Nova Scotia with her family in 2012. She says Canada has always felt like home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI walk down the street, I feel so safe here. I have so many opportunities here, I can live my life here properly without being judged,\u201d Wael Mejjallid said in an interview following the ceremony.<\/p>\n

She said Canada is a country that believes in and empowers women. \u201cI don\u2019t have to worry about the whole, \u2018Oh you\u2019re a woman, blah blah blah, you can\u2019t do anything.\u2019 There\u2019s no such thing as that. I am a powerful woman here and I can do whatever I want.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wael Mejjallid is a member of the Canadian Armed Forces, training out of Gagetown, N.B. However, she wasn\u2019t able to advance in training until she became a citizen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can start back next month properly \u2026 and I can give back to the country that gave me a home. That\u2019s why I\u2019m really happy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five-year-old Anaya was smiling and dancing as she waved a small Canadian flag during her father\u2019s Canadian\u00a0citizenship\u00a0ceremony Friday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[49,48,102323,230963,44],"class_list":["post-613711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-citizenship","tag-charter-of-rights","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}