International Mother Language Day
Los Angeles/Jan 19, 2026
NRIpress.club/Ramesh/ A.Gary Singh
Punjabi Language Education Association (PLEA) has been actively promoting Punjabi
language in Canada for more than 30 years. As part of this process, every year, it celebrates
International Mother Language Day to create more awareness about our mother tongue in
the community. This year’s celebration will be held at Taj Park Convention Centre in Surrey
on Saturday, February 21 from 12 noon to 3 PM. The PLEA team of dedicated volunteers
has been working hard to make this celebration a very enjoyable one.
Throughout the year, PLEA continues to lobby various levels of government,
private organizations, businesses and the community promoting Punjabi.
Incidentally, in Canada, Punjabi has now become the third most spoken language
after English and French. It has more than two million speakers of Punjabi all over
Canada. Internationally, Punjabi is the tenth most spoken language in the world with
more than 150 million speakers.
This year’s celebration of International Mother Language Day will have B.C.’s Minister of
Post Secondary Education, Jessie Sunner, as its keynote speaker. Prominent retired RCMP
officer and current Senator Baltej Singh Dhillon will share his experience and the benefits
of Punjabi language. Students from various schools,K.P.U UBC and S.F.U. will share their
speeches, poems and stories with the audience. Two students-Rohan Gill and Jayden Gill-
will share a film with the attendees. There will be several other performances and activities
relating to Punjabi language. Courtesy of Taj Park Convention Centre, refreshments will be
available. There is ample free parking. Public is invited to join us in celebrating this very
special day devoted to Punjabi language.
In this context, it is very encouraging to see a lot of government and non-
government organizations and businesses provide their services in Punjabi. Most of our
banks, credit unions and other financial institutions, hospitals, city halls and other
organizations are proud to provide their services in Punjabi as well. Vancouver international
airport was one of the first ones to provide services in Punjabi at the airport and welcome
the international passengers in Punjabi. Similarly, public corporations like ICBC provide
their claim services in Punjabi. A lot of banks have their ATM services in Punjabi as well.
More services in Punjabi at various levels are being added to the list. PLEA is very thankful
to all of them for their support for Punjabi. At this gathering there will be a brief information
about the upcoming Census.
Every five years, Statistics Canada conducts a very comprehensive census
nationwide. This year, it will be held in May. . Print and online forms for the census
should be available before that. There will be three questions about language– question #s 8,9 and 10. PLEA would like to urge everyone to participate in the
census and fill out and return the forms to Statistics Canada when the time comes.
It is our civic duty to do so. Also, PLEA would like to urge well-wishers and lovers of
Punjabi language to mark Punjabi as their language at the designated places. In the
meantime, we would like to urge all well-wishers of Punjabi language to join us in
this celebration on February 21.
Balwant Sanghera
President, Punjabi Language Education Association (PLEA)
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