Thursday (July 1) marks our 154th Canada Day but, without a doubt, there is a different air to the national holiday this year. Although the pandemic means few real events would have been happening this July 1, some Canada Day celebrations have been cancelled out of respect to the growing numbers of Indigenous children whose remains are being found in unmarked graves on residential school sites.
It’s prompted a national discussion on what we are to celebrate, if anything at all.
For many older Canadians, especially those who have raised children, it is the first time they have really confronted the deliberate harm done to Indigenous people. Children were taken from their families for the purpose of having their culture erased. Thousands did not return.
Some insist we should recognize all of the wrong that’s been done in the name of Canada and still break out the maple leaf cupcakes and Stompin’ Tom. Despite its past and ongoing transgressions, Canada remains a place of progress and promise.
Others will spend the day wearing orange in solidarity with Indigenous people. Some have pledged to spend a part of the day reading the 11-page Calls to Action produced by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.
We feel some civic responsibility, at least, must come before civic pride. The annual recognition of Canada’s confederation cannot be cancelled any more than its history can. It can only be made better and more meaningful by confronting our failures and taking the actions, as individuals and via our governments and institutions, that will allow us – all of us – to live up to our good name.
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