Nobel Peace laureate Malala Yousafzai on Wednesday received honorary Canadian citizenship and praised Canada's open embrace of refugees under the Liberal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Canada last year accepted 25,000 refugees from Syria and in January, when US President Donald Trump issued an immigration ban on people from seven Muslim-majority countries, Trudeau pointedly tweeted that refugees were welcome in Canada.
"Your motto and your stand - Welcome to Canada - is more than a headline or a hashtag," 19-year-old Yousafzai said in an address to legislators in the Canadian Parliament.
Malala Yousafzai is the youngest person to receive an honourary Canadian citizenship. /Reuters Photo
She also called on Canada to use its influence in the world to push for more education funding for girls and child refugees around the world. "If Canada leads, the world will follow," she said to roaring applause and repeated standing ovations in the packed Canadian parliament.
The Pakistani schoolgirl activist was originally meant to receive her citizenship in October 2014. However, a ceremony scheduled in Toronto with then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper was abruptly cancelled due to a terrorist attack in the parliament.
Malala Yousafzai and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres take questions from the audience during a ceremony to name her as a United Nations Messenger of Peace at UN headquarters, April 10, 2017, in New York City. /VCG Photo
In 2012, the Taliban shot Yousafzai in the head when she was on her way to school in Pakistan because she advocated for the right of girls to go to school in the country.
She survived the terrorist attack and became an international symbol of the fight for girls’ education.
After moving with her family to Birmingham, she and her father co-founded the non-profit Malala Fund in 2013 and co-authored the best-selling book "I am Malala."
Named a co-recipient of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize, Yousafzai was the youngest person ever to earn the distinction.
She was designated as UN Messenger of Peace on April 10 by the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and became the youngest UN Messenger of Peace given by the world body.
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