Tuesday, July 01, 2025

Hatred doesn't celebrate Canada Day

Standing on guard, but only for some
London, ON
October 2017
This photo originally shared on Instagram

It’s July 1st. Canada Day. And I suppose I could post some kind of gauzy prose about Canada’s 158th birthday and how awesome this country is.

But I won’t.

Don’t get me wrong: we’re lucky enough to live in a nation worthy of gauzy prose. We won the country lottery when the strands of the universe decided that this was where we’d end up.

So many other nations fail their citizens, and Canada is a light among nations for too many reasons to reliably share here within the word limit. We’re better than the alternatives.

But better is far from perfect.

Hatred burns here in ways that betray our reputation.

Perhaps all the freedoms we take for granted have given some of us license to return to the notion of us vs. them. Or maybe the freedom to express ourselves has emboldened some among us to do so without benefit of knowledge, empathy, or kindness.

Sometimes I wonder if the marketing-friendly patina of maple leaves, moose, Mounties, and Molson gives cover to those who would target complete strangers simply because they come from somewhere else, speak a different language, pray to a different god, or have the wrong shade of skin.

Like the 40-plus million of us who call this place home, Canada is a work in progress, a flawed echo of countless individuals too often blinded by the rage of red to appreciate all we have.

That rage has only gotten worse since Canada’s last birthday. My inbox and social media feeds are filled with it. Because apparently my background invites anti-Semitic threats even when I’m covering the most basic stories about tech.

So please forgive me for not waving the flag unabashedly today. Wrapping ourselves in endless plaid doesn’t mask the erosion, nor does it put us on a path toward a future where everyone feels like they belong. Safely.

I don’t. And I’m far from the only one. So no gauzy prose from me for now. Maybe next year. But probably not.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #canadaday #red #mapleleaf #stilllife #photography


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