- by Michael Craig

I am generally proud to live in Canada. We have as settlers - those who came centuries ago, and others who have been welcomed as recent immigrants - found, as a rule, safety and prosperity in a country that was carved out of a northern wilderness. We are to a great extent an urban nation that is proud of its education and health care systems and, for the most part, committed to inclusive multiculturalism, human rights and democracy. What’s not to like? With these rosy perspectives in mind, I erected a Canadian flag in my front garden as my celebratory gesture for Canada Day.

Now, believe me, I have long been aware of the faults and failures of Canada: dire poverty amid plenty; people with million-dollar incomes driving past homeless people on our streets; and the stubborn racism, homophobia and islamophobia that infects many hearts and minds. But on the whole, I thought, we have much to be proud of.

Then came the revelations from graveyards at Kamloops and Cowessess residential schools that nearly 800 people were buried in unmarked graves, most of them children who were placed in the care of Catholic and other religious orders to “stamp the Indian out of them”, as someone put it. And this, of course, is just the beginning. In coming months, as the digs continue, the death toll will mount and our collective shame will become unbearable.

So, as my own personal protest, juxtaposing the flag and national pride with my horror and shame, I painted my sign, ending with the words, “Canada’s shame”.

On Canada Day I will not be cheering the fireworks organized by my Owen Sound government. Rather at 4 pm on July 1, I will meet with people of the Anishinaabe and other First Nations, Métis, Inuit, settlers, and newcomers, to walk together from the east side of the harbour, (near the Health Unit building at the top of 1st Avenue East), to a ceremonial fire at the Gitche Namewikwedong Reconciliation Garden at the south end of Kelso Beach Park. We will walk to remember the 1,323 Indigenous children recovered from unmarked graves outside residential schools across Canada as of June 24, 2021.

Join us if you can stand looking at both sides of the Canadian coin.