06/29/2022
I’ve thought long and hard about Canada Day and how I wanted to approach it this year. I feel conflicted, as I am proud of my country for so many things, yet simultaneously ashamed of its history of oppression, marginalization, and colonization. I am grateful for my freedoms as a Canadian, but also recognize that these freedoms are rooted in the many injustices of the past.
I’m not indigenous, so I can’t claim to understand the personal and generational trauma experienced by those whose culture has been continuously threatened, though I promise to educate myself and be better. I recognize my privilege and know that my thoughts and words aren’t enough. Action is needed.
I will not have a drop tonight. Instead, I am using this time to reflect, educate myself, and begin a plan of how I intend to transition my thoughts into actions in the near future.
This is Bawaating/Robinson-Huron Treaty Territory and as such we have an obligation to Canada’s original inhabitants to pause and honour those children, and identities, lost at the hands of our country. Only in acknowledging truth can we move forward and built the great nation that we know Canada can be. I look forward to celebrating Canada Day with my children and using it as an opportunity to teach them about the nation’s true history and how we need to work toward reconciliation through meaningful actions, both at the macro and micro levels. It is those steps that we take now and in the coming years that will shape a new landscape and bind the very fabric of our fractured country.
So as I celebrate Canada Day this year, I am celebrating the Canada of the future. The Canada grounded in equality. The Canada that not only preserves, but embraces and honours all cultural identities. The Canada that lives up to all of the promises and ideals that it was founded on. This is the Canada that I want to see and the one that I am proud to call home.
