Canada Day in 2021

Our neighbour is renovating his childhood home right next door to us, and in the process, his electrical supply wire is being rerouted -- right up against the backyard flag pole where we hang our Canada Flag every July 1st, Canada Day. 

At first, I was quite unhappy that we had to take the flag pole down... but since then, the revelation of over 1,000 unmarked graves of children who died at the Indian Residential Schools in our country have made me a lot less proud of the flag that was a real source of pride when I travelled Europe in my twenties. Canadians like me are waking up to the shadow side of our country, visible in its long history of settlers mistreating those who lived here for thousands of years before a pope invented the Doctrine of Discovery and Europeans took over the lands we now call Canada.

The history of prejudice continues today, with recent attacks on Muslim women here in my own city. This grand country we call Canada does not feel like a safe place for many people who live here, namely, people of colour and our LGBTQ2S+ siblings. Some of the descendants of Canada's settlers still have entitlement issues, forgetting that they are no better than anyone else even as they look down on people who are different than them.

So when my good neighbour, Shelley, offered me the sign pictured here, I was delighted. I can't fly a Canada flag this year, and truthfully, I'm not sure I would want to if I could. Not this year while we're in the thick of the discoveries of these unmarked graves and the pain it causes so many Indigenous neighbours; maybe next year. But the message of this sign fits perfectly for right now.

Let's do more than fly flags or post signs like this one. Let's make Canada a country we can be proud of by preventing it from becoming a home for hate. There is plenty of room here for healthy diversity, for reconciliation and healing, and for everyone.