We must think about what we need to do to be a Canada worth celebrating
Be honest. How much of your Canada Day is actually about Canada? At my last Canada Day event, in 2019, which now feels so distant, a time before COVID-19, I stood outside at a lovely party hosted by a friend, the guests mostly people I didn't know. I snacked on chips, drank some drinks, and watched nervously as fireworks were lit in the backyard a little too close for my liking, a spectacle of flashes and bangs eliciting oohs and aahs.
Not once did the topic of Canada come up at that party, save for occasional tipsy declarations of Happy Canada Day!" We didn't discuss what we liked or disliked about Canada. We didn't speak of what Canada meant to us, or any of Canada's or Canadians' achievements. We didn't rank our favourite Heritage Minutes. Rather, that day, like most Canada Days before it, was a day off from work, an excuse to gather with family and friends, to eat and drink, an excuse to shoot dangerous but pretty lights into the night sky.
Is your Canada Day really that different? At your picnics, do you go around giving thanks? At your backyard gathering, other than the presence of a flag, is your celebration really about Canada, or do you spend more time figuring out if your burger is ready or if the beer is cold enough yet? Is it truly about Canada, or really about relaxation and a day's relief from labour and responsibility?
I do not believe our Indigenous communities are asking us not to have a day off, not to gather, not to be with family and friends, not to be surrounded by the warmth and comfort of our loved ones. To me, they are simply asking us to remember theirs. The babies who did not come home, omitted from so many of our history books but never forgotten by their community. And on this Canada Day, so close to the fresh discovery of the bodies of their loved ones - their graves unmarked because you don't mark what you are trying to hide - instead of celebrating with fireworks and pomp and circumstance, many seem to be asking us to reflect on what the joining together of three British colonies on July 1, 1867, meant for the original inhabitants and caretakers of this land, and continues to mean for them every day.
Do fireworks really mean so much to your Canadian identity that going without them is some great injustice? After Indigenous people literally died in genocide, then and now, still now, for Canada to exist as it does today, is it really asking so much for us to stop and think about what Canada has been, is and could be instead of lighting a sparkler? To ask us not to celebrate the instrument of people's grief when people are freshly grieving?
If we truly want to be the Canada that Canada claims to be, that I hope we all want it to be, a Canada that cares for all of its people, then learning, listening, reflecting and acting on July 1 is the bare minimum. If celebrating Canada Day this year does matter that much to you, think about why it does. And then think about why others may not have the same motivation. Why others may associate Canada and this Canada Day especially with pain. Think about and learn about what you could do to ensure others that have been treated badly by Canada aren't treated that way anymore. To ensure that Canada doesn't just treat some people well, but everyone well. Think about land, water, policing, justice, tradition, freedom, community. Listen to Indigenous leaders and communities. Listen to the people who have been speaking their truths for decades, for centuries.
I will reflect on my relationship with this land, on what it means to be a settler, my presence here itself a legacy of colonial violence - my Black ancestors brought over to the Americas in shackles on boats, my indigenous Caribbean ancestors killed and displaced by the Europeans, my parents eventually moving north by plane. I will discuss with my friends how we can do our part, today and every day, in truth and reconciliation. This year, my Canada Day will have no celebration. But I want us all to think about what we need to do to be a Canada worth celebrating.
Hadiya Roderique is a writer and consultant living in Toronto.