Canada Day for some

Don't worship me
London, ON
April 2020
This photo originally shared on Instagram

The calendar says it’s July 1st. Canada Day. Our country’s 156th birthday.

Cue the fireworks, the wearing of red and white merch, the flag-waving, and the annual jingoistic proclamations of national pride.

There, we good?

Now, let’s get real.

Canada is a wonderful country, full stop. It ranks highly on too many global lists to count, and outsiders generally like us. More realistically, it’s a pretty decent place to raise a family, grow a career, and live the kind of peaceful, opportunistic life that citizens of other countries can only dream of.

But we’re far from perfect.

Canada’s history of treating its Indigenous peoples with contempt and cruelty is well-known. We haven’t always been as welcoming to outsiders as we should have been, and the undercurrents of racism and white supremacy run strongly from sea to shining sea.

So forgive me if I don’t join in the blind flag-waving in equally blind support of a national ideal that has never existed. Those who thump their chests and brand themselves patriots, after all, probably never understood the meaning of the word. And likely never will.

I worship not the flag, but the ideals inherent in everyone who lives and/or comes here in search of a better life. I cheer not the rote words of the anthem, but the sentiment they represent for those of us who sing the song, however ignorantly.

This notion of naked pursuit of empty words - constitution, nation, liberty, freedom, whatever - as a free pass to do whatever we want to anyone who gets in our way, damn the consequences, will never feel right. It isn’t who we are.

So while I celebrate the day, I choose to do so not because of some flag that waves in the wind, but because of the people who will, hopefully over time, work toward a better country that treats everyone as they deserve to be treated.

We’re not there yet. So we keep trying. As we must.

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