To commemorate Brazil’s 203 years of independence, the Brazilian Consulate General in Toronto held a flag-raising ceremony. The event, in honor of September 7th, took place at the entrance to the Ontario Legislative Assembly this Friday (5) and brought together Consul Enio Cordeiro, authorities, and civil society representatives.
The Brazilian flag was raised on Canadian soil, accompanied by the playing of the national anthems of both countries. The celebration also featured a performance by a chorinho trio.
In his speech, the consul highlighted the cooperative relationships that Brazil has established over the years and the country’s role in finding solutions to global crises. He also emphasized the good relationship between Brazil and Canada, countries that share democratic values and the defence of human rights.
He invited all Brazilians to participate in next year’s elections and emphasized their trust in Brazilian institutions, as well as the need to accept the election results without any action that would jeopardize democracy.
In a statement posted on social media, Cordeiro emphasized the role of Brazilian culture. “Brazilian culture is increasingly present locally, through gastronomy, music, and other spontaneous artistic expressions of the Brazilian community. In the city of Toronto and the surrounding municipalities where the largest contingent of Brazilian immigrants in Canada is located, we represent an increasingly visible part of the complex multicultural web of this country that welcomes us.”
Google Translation (not edited)
Remarks by the Consul-General of Brazil in Toronto, Ambassador Enio Cordeiro, at the National Flag Raising Ceremony
(Sept 5th, 2025).
Thank you for being with us in this celebration.
We are grateful for the presence of the Honourable Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, MPP Effie Triantafilopoulos, the Honourable MPP Lee Fairclough, representing the Ontario Liberal Party, and my dear good friend and Minister, the Honourable MPP Michael Tibollo, representing the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario.
I wish also to recognize the presence of my colleagues of the Consular Corps in Toronto, the representatives of the Ontario Protocol, members of the Brazilian community and all Canadian friends that came to share this moment with us.
September 7th 1822 was the day we started our path as an independent nation and it marks the beginning of a long history of friendship with all members of the international community.
Brazil is an active member of all major international organizations, a member of the Mercosur, a common market association with Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay, a member of CELAC, a political and cooperative association of all Caribbean and Latin American States, a member of the Organization of American States, a member of the G-20, a group that endeavors to promote dialogue and cooperation bringing together the Leaders of the major developed and developing countries, and also a member of the BRICS, originally a group of five emerging economies representing 40% of the global population and GDP which has recently enlarged to encompass a political dialogue expressing the views of the Global South in international affairs.
Together with Portugal, Angola and 7 other countries in Africa and Asia, Brazil is also a proud member of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries, an association in which we promote cooperation and share the richness of our common history, our culture and our beautiful language.
In all these converging vicinities, Brazil is a consistent voice for cooperation and the peaceful resolution of conflicts. Brazil was elected 11 times to serve as a non-permanent member of the Security Council of the United Nations. Our last term in the Council took place in 2022-2023. Brazil chaired the meetings of the G-20 last year and the meetings of the BRICS in 2025. Also this year, Brazil will host the Conference of the Parties of the UN Convention on Climate Change in a critical moment for the international efforts to address these pressing challenges to our planet.
With Canada, our friendship bonds and trade relations started almost 190 years ago with the designation of Brazilian Vice-Consuls in the Canadian ports of Halifax (in 1836) and Saint John (in 1858). Our two countries fought together in WWII and established diplomatic relations in 1941. Our relations are guided today by a Strategic Partnership.
President Lula was recently invited for the G-7 summit in Kananaskis. In a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney both parties decided to resume this year the negotiations for a free trade agreement between Canada and Mercosur, which had been dormant for the past few years.
Our bilateral trade with Canada nears 10 billion U.S. dollars a year and our bilateral private investments have already exceeded an aggregated value of 20 billion dollars in each direction. We just received a few days ago a visit by the Canadian Minister of International Trade, MP Maninder Sidhu, who went to Brasília and São Paulo to discuss the prospect for new trade and investment partnerships.
Moreover, trade delegations from Brazil will come to Toronto next week to participate in activities organized by the Brazil-Canada Chamber of Commerce with a view to reinforce our economic ties.
Brazil and Canada share core values in the defence of democracy and human rights. We are two large and genuine multiethnic and multicultural societies.
Brazilians are proud to be one people and one nation of so many colors and origins, a true melting pot of human integration. Any Brazilian citizen may trace his origins at the same time to many roots in native Brazilian indigenous groups and European, African or Asian ancestors.
We continue to be blessed with the arrival of new immigrants that find the opportunity to rebuild their lives in Brazil.
More than half of a Brazilian population of 210 million inhabitants identify themselves as African descendants, and this makes us the country with the largest population of African descent in the world.
In the last decades, a new demographic movement formed a diaspora of 5 million Brazilians living abroad.
In this trend, every year more Brazilians are calling Canada home.
We estimate that nearly 150 thousand Brazilians live today in Canada, out of which around 80 thousand Brazilians settled in the vicinities of Toronto. This community is largely formed by small entrepreneurs and their families, by students and employees in the private sector. More than 12.000 Brazilian students are currently enrolled in educational programs in Canada. Many Brazilians have also become Canadian citizens, and they are embraced by the Canadian people with openness and generosity.
Brazilians are in this way adding their contribution to the multicultural landscape of Toronto with musical performances, street festivals, cinema and gastronomy, thus contributing to a deeper understanding and appreciation of the Brazilian culture.
(Our guests will now be treated with a short musical performance. Our guest trio, led by André Valério, is going to play a few pieces of chorinho, a genre of music that is, in Brazil, as traditional as samba or bossa-nova. Chorinho is a blend of old Portuguese and African rhythms with the European dances that were very popular in Brazil at the end of the XIX century. The offspring of this unlikely mix is as Brazilian as it can be.)
