President Lennart Meri, Honorary Patron of the ESTO 2000, and Mrs. Helle Meri, participated in the events of the World-wide Estonian Festival on July 8-10.

President Meri met the Estonians who had gathered to Toronto, as well as the Canadian Members of Parliament, and the administrations of the Ontario Province and the city of Toronto. On all the meetings, the potential contribution of the expatriate Estonians to developing the Estonia-friendly attitude of their countries of residence was discussed.

On Monday, the President met the Canadian MP John McKay, and discussed with him the tasks of national minorities in shaping their countries’ foreign policy. The same subject was discussed on the President's meeting with Michael Prew and Chris Kowin-Kosczinski, the Governors of Toronto, who emphasised the friendship between the cities of Toronto and Tallinn. The Mayor of Toronto has proclaimed the week from July 8 to July 16 to be the ESTO 2000 week in Toronto.

On Saturday, under the conscientious guidance of Osvald Piil, Chairman of the Board of the Estonia House, President Lennart Meri and Mrs. Helle Meri learned more of the organisations residing in the Estonian House of Toronto. Ilmar Heinsoo, the Honorary Consul General, greeted the President in the Estonian Consulate that is also situated in the same building. The Estonian President brought the Estonian House a gift – copies of the statues of Jaan Tõnisson and Konstantin Päts; the original statues were cast by the artist Ferdinand Sannamees at the end of the 1930s, and are now in the presidential palace of Kadriorg.

On Saturday evening, President Meri held the opening speech on the ESTO opening ceremony, and spoke of the expatriates’ new opportunities to support Estonia’s development and to contribute to the shaping of the foreign policy of their countries of residence, and encouraged economic co-operation with Estonia.

On Monday morning, President Meri gave a speech on the business seminar of Canadian businessmen, and emphasised that Canada could add considerably to the 3 million dollars that she has already invested in Estonia, especially considering Canada's big Estonian community.

In his speech on the National Congress on Monday, July 10, the President said to the audience that expatriate Estonians should take better advantage of the opportunities resulting from their double citizenship. As citizens of their countries of residence, they could be more active in promoting the goals of Estonia's foreign policy.

On Tuesday, the President's working visit to Canada continued in Calgary, where a meeting with the local Estonians was the first item on his agenda. In the afternoon, the President visited Stettler, where the oldest known Estonian settlement in Canada had been founded in 1899. More than fifty people, children or grandchildren of the Estonians who had once emigrated to Canada, had come to meet the Estonian Head of State and his spouse. On the meeting that took place both in Estonian and in English, the President promised to find researchers in Estonia who would survey the parish registers of Stettler and record the memories of the Estonians living there. The President also visited the Stettler Museum of Pioneers where both an Estonian-language Bible form the end of the 19th century and a copy of ''Kalevipoeg'', the Estonian national epic, printed at the beginning of the 20th century, can be found among the exhibits.


Press Service of the Office of the President
Kadriorg, July 10, 2000

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