It’s July 1st, do I hang my flag or my head?

Happy Canada Day to my fellow Canadians! I wanted to write a quick thought on this day of celebration. I feel the last couple years have been difficult to understand our position as patriotic Canadian citizens. After the discovery of several unmarked graves at residential schools across the country, proudly waving the Canadian flag felt disgraceful and insensitive. This was followed by the voices of the anti-covid freedom movement to display the Canadian flag as a symbol of rights and freedoms. The flag of Canada became a symbol of diametrically opposing values but somehow, simultaneously, representing a move away from oppression. Who doesn’t want agency and autonomy over their life and decisions, after-all? Thankfully, we live in a country, unlike many other countries in the world, that grant us freedoms others don’t have.

Our governments are run by people and people are imperfect, so why do we expect, even demand, that our systems are perfect? Aren’t we all trying to accept and love our own selves for the dynamic beings that we are and forgive ourselves for past ignorance and error? How can we create a perfect system, meeting all the needs of all Canadians, all the time, when our systems are run and operated by people that are just human beings bound to make mistakes? How can we forgive ourselves, as a nation, for our indiscretions of the past? Don’t get me wrong, we aren’t off the hook, we are still working through the growing pains and making amends.

Canada is steeped in it’s own less than desirable history and our predecessors certainly acted in atrocious ways towards the First People of this land. These are actions that we, as a whole country, are trying to reconcile. Let’s face it, white people hundreds of years ago into the present were kind of selfish jerks and they were arrogant enough to believe they truly were entitled to take what they wanted. And they did this all over the world, creating lingering trauma for many. Not cool, but did our ancestors know any better or were they acting on impulse?

I am not here to defend or put down dead white colonialists, nor am I here to take any sides. I just really want to share my deep gratitude for the country I live in, despite it’s historical misgivings. At the end of the day, Canada is pretty special and I feel very fortunate to live here as a blind woman. We might not be a perfect country but we are trying to take care of our citizens. We are, generally, good and thoughtful people. We are mindful of our environment, garbage and recycling programs. We are a multi cultural country with diverse ethnic groups. We take care of each other with a social infra-structure and we are still considered peace-keepers in the global community. We are friendly neighbours, considerate and co-operative, looking for solutions and not instigating problems. And, I believe, we are trying our best, what ever that best might look like. Could we do better? I think the answer is we could all be doing better as individual human beings on the planet as a whole and until we can each declare we are doing our personal best, we can’t create judgment of our country because we are the collective reflection.

It is important to remember that humans have been evolving for millennia and along with this evolution came aspects of primitive and undesirable human behaviour, wars, territory disputes, genocide and biological survival. As a whole, I see that Canada, and it’s people are open and willing to progress in forward thinking and positive ways. We are trying to repair our historical damage. We will never meet the needs of everyone all at once. This is no fault of our country, this is a reflection of millions of people all desiring autonomy and individualization. Those opinions and needs are as diverse as all life on Earth. But in 2023, inclusion and equality is top of our game.

The important piece is for us to remember that we are all in this together. We are not just the past, we are not a left or a right, we are a human race of people evolving into a future.  We have an individual responsibility to make the whole world a more inclusive and better place. And we are going to keep making mistakes and learning.

My vision? That we step up and come together in awareness that the most important issue facing us today, as a global human race, is the protection of the Earth that we live and depend on. She is not a commodity to be abused. She is the only home we have and we are part of the natural order of it all. To acknowledge and re-direct our greed, pleasure impulses and over-consumption is key to transitioning back into creating balance we so desperately need. I propose as conscientious Canadians that we lead the way, along side our Indigenous brothers and sisters, back to protecting the land, water, air and non-human life that we are deeply interconnected to and walking our walk for the rest of the world to see. Maybe then we will be atoned.

To me, being Canadian means to humbly acknowledge my privilege and to use my good fortune to do my best to make it even better for not just humans, but all life on Earth. I invite you to exercise your Canadian privilege and celebrate your positive influence today and everyday by making a difference!

Let us not take anything for granted.

Happy Canada Day!