People don’t want Canada Day cancelled
Recently three major Canadian cities: Calgary, Toronto and Vancouver, attempted to either curtail or end Canada Day celebrations. The first two had to reverse their decision because of angry citizen protests and petitions and the third, Vancouver, received a strong rebuke from city mayor Ken Sim because the port authority would not go ahead with the kind of Canada Day celebrations we have enjoyed on our national birthday for a century and a half.
It is time to ask what all this means. Since Lisa Helps, former mayor of Victoria, started the trend of cancelling elements of Canada Day celebrations in 2021, we have been subjected to various attempts to cancel our national holiday and diminish our identity as a nation. The principal reason for this has been the contention that Canada is a terrible place, stained by shameful practices with a horrific history of terrible deeds. But who really feels this way? Not the average Canadian, so we should ask ourselves where this is coming from.
Calgary city council cited the need to protect minority groups from being reminded of the trauma of colonization and mistreatment. Yet Michelle Robinson an indigenous advocate stated herself to be in favour of the fireworks. She further stated that celebrations of Canada Day were not the problem. Cree journalist Mellisa Mbarki stated, and I quote that “she would like to know how many Indigenous groups, people and communities were consulted about this. Many of us look forward to July 1st festivities, including the fireworks.”
No indigenous groups or Chinese Canadian groups requested that Canada Day fireworks be cancelled in Calgary. The same would probably be true of the other two cities mentioned, so who does this serve? It serves a small group of ideologically driven elites who want this sort of thing to happen, but it does not represent the Canadian people as the backlash against cancelling Canada Day clearly represents.
Perry Foster
Duncan