If you are a proud Canadian, a true patriot Don't hesitate to express your love on July 1st of this year. If you have a flag and want to show your color, go ahead and wave it.
Display.
Raise it.
Please wear it.
Canada isn't perfect, but it's the envy of countries around the world. It is a promised land and is welcomed by immigrants seeking a better life. It is a place of prosperity, an almost endless natural beauty, and a place of powerful philanthropic impulses.
Canadians generally care deeply about each other. Faced with devastating storms, fires and floods, no country can escape the wrath of nature. Our differences are eliminated, resilient communities come together to overcome difficulties and tragedy.
The last few years have been difficult. The once-in-a-century pandemic has tested Canada in myriad ways. And we suffered terrible losses and exposed our failures.
But again, we are relatively well out of the COVID-19 crisis compared to most countries. The majority of Canadians understood that they were at stake and, guided by science and a sense of duty, acted wisely and compassionately to protect themselves and others.
And Canada's forefront healthcare professionals, who have fought fierce and epic battles with evolving enemies, have become the heroes of the war of this era.
If you have the Canadian flag for these or many other reasons, spread it out. Flapping wings. I will skip it.
This is a country we should be crazy about.
But no matter what you do with Maple Leaf this Canada Day, don't be afraid to be mistaken for a friend of the "Freedom Convoy" crowd who is occupying and threatening the capital this winter. .. I will do so this weekend as well.
Yes, Ottawa hostages assigned a flag in February, giving them a veneer of something noble to their deteriorating assault on Canadian values. Many of the illegal disturbers and their realizers in right-wing politics and social media, literally or figuratively, crouch in red and white to disguise their warfare and narrow self-interest as some sort of patriotism. Was emphasized.
We call it a red and white wash. Or just hog wash. No one was fooled, even before the blasphemy of the National War Memorial, the behavior of the South Army flag, and the abuse of the statue of Terry Fox (the Canadian flag is upside down). Siege of the Houses of Parliament.
Reject the notion of collective well-being, condemn cautious public health measures in the midst of the planet's plague, demand the overthrow of democratically elected governments, and the cost of the rights of others. Doesn't really get Canada — and certainly doesn't own the Canadian flag.
And they need to remind us of what our national emblem really symbolizes.
Only a few weeks after the occupation was delayed, but mercifully ended, the maple leaves enjoyed an amazing, soul-healing moment in the spotlight. That was encouraging.
In late March, the Canadian men's soccer team qualifies for the World Cup For the first time in 36 years to win and build history, the Toronto Stadium stand turned into a rippling Canadian flag as enthusiastic fans cheered on a 4-0 victory over home team Jamaica. Temporary stains on maple leaves during the occupation of Ottawa were instantly washed away.
In an outburst of pure joy, hundreds of flag-waving people among the 29,000 ecstatic spectators of the game are primarily the monumental achievements of Team Canada, as well as About the country itself, which showed support for what the team empowered by the immigrant star represents.
"Canada is a multicultural country," said Yugoslavian-born goalkeeper Milan Borjan in a spectacular campaign for the team's World Cup berth. "We fight for what we are given. Canada has given us peace, a better school, a better life. All better. This is our return to Canada. It's just a way. "
Who wouldn't flag it. Probably just something like a escort brigade.
But their angry, fearful voices should be drowned out by Canada Day, and by those who always see the country as a place of peace, order and optimism, a "good government". It's not a slogan, but a constitutionally established desire.
It is also worth remembering that the Canadian flag was designed primarily in the mid-1960s to better capture the country's modern multicultural reality. The cluttered old Canadian Red Ensign was officially replaced by Maple Reef in 1965, with references to the country's colonial roots in the Mini Union Jack and other coats of arms, all regardless of ethnic and cultural heritage. We have provided Canadians with a simple, stylish and unobtrusive symbol. To get together.
Canada is at its best a fortress of tolerance and inclusion, with people paying attention to each other, especially the most vulnerable, and believing in honest democratic dialogue. To express and move society forward. It's not a loop conspiracy theory interrupted by a deafening air horn blast.
Our flag has reached a particularly difficult time. Before the occupation of Convoy sought to order Maple Reef to serve the invented dissatisfaction, obsession, and American-style polarization agenda, the flag gave a new revelation of the horror of Indian housing schools. In response, it had been weathered for several months in the shadow of the half-mast shame. Deeply darkens the history of Canada.
Minimize the flapping of patriotic flags last year after the tombs of hundreds of potentially unmarked children on the grounds of a former indigenous residential school suffered a tragic discovery. There was widespread consensus that the limited Canadian Day was calm. Guaranteed at that moment of shared guilt and sadness.
These sentiments were reinforced only by ongoing racial calculations in Canada triggered by the widespread Black Lives Matter protests last summer. Many of us have a sharp learning curve about the countries we thought we knew: the past and the present.
A year later, on the eve of another Canada Day, we may wonder. Can shame and pride coexist in the "shining heart" that the national anthem says should stimulate our country?
You can. No country on earth can be without the tragic chapters of history, the injustices of our time, and the enormous challenges we face in the future. The key question is whether a country whose wounds have not healed and whose mistakes have not been resolved is treating trauma and facing its failure.
Are we really striving to be a better Canada, or are we involved in a spiral of self-justification, defense and denial? In short, are we making progress?
For those who answer "yes" and see Canada as a country striving for more hope, opportunity, equality, and true freedom in the game, this is a celebrating country. is.
I got the flag. Try this Canada Day.
Randy Boswellis a professor of journalism at Carleton University and a former citizen writer and editor.
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