(Mel Rothenburger).

By Mel Rothenburger

ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: Cancelling Canada Day won’t solve what ails our country

Jun 26, 2021 | 6:45 AM

EACH JULY 1, we traditionally celebrate the diversity of our community and of our country.

The usual celebrations at Riverside Park won’t happen this year, cancelled again by COVID.

A couple of weeks ago, I was thinking that maybe it’s not such a bad thing, that maybe, this year, there’s not much to celebrate.

But I’ve changed my mind about that. I’m with Kukpi7 Rosanne Casimir and Mayor Ken Christian, who say we need to acknowledge Canada Day and to use it as an opportunity to learn. They’ve worked together, along with the Kamloops Arts Council, on a Virtual Canada Day for us to enjoy as a replacement for what COVID took away.

When I was having doubts about marking Canada Day at all, a young man had just driven a pickup truck onto a sidewalk in London, Ont., killing four members of a Muslim family and seriously injuring a fifth, a nine-year-old child.

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That same week, an Angus Reid Institute poll found that almost half of Asian-Canadians say they’ve been subjected to discrimination.

And the discovery here of the remains of 215 children (which has been followed this week by 751 in Saskatchewan) — victims of the barbaric, racist Indian Residential School system — brought everything closer to home.

But ignore Canada Day? It’s more important than ever to recognize both the good and the bad in our country, to examine Canada in balance, and to commemorate our mosaic.

Kamloops has a wonderfully diverse ethnic population — people of Japanese, Chinese, Sikh, Muslim, Indigenous and many other ethnicities and religions — that enriches our community and makes it strong and vibrant.

And yet, from residential schools to war-era internment camps and everyday discrimination, taunts and even violence on the street or when just buying a cup of coffee, all of those groups and others have suffered the ugliness of racism or intolerance, and continue to do so.

It’s getting harder and harder to hang on to the notion that Canada is not a racist, intolerant nation.

In past years, I’ve enjoyed writing about our achievements, about inventions that have made the world a better place, our role as peacemakers, about Canadians who have risen to international prominence for the very best of reasons, about our quirkiness and about the things that make us who we are.

Last year, my Canada Day column lamented a sudden shift from it being a day about unity in diversity towards a day that dwells on what tears us apart.

This year’s tragic news events couldn’t make it clearer that we have a very long way to go. After 154 years, we remain a work in progress.

Some people say they’re ashamed to be Canadian. I’m ashamed of some of the things Canada has done but I continue to believe we hold fundamental values that are good and right. Without question, Canada has made some terrible mistakes, and racism and intolerance live among us. But burning down churches isn’t an answer.

Neither is cancelling or postponing Canada Day events, even online, as Penticton and Victoria — as well as several communities across the country — have done. One can understand the sentiment driving City councils that have done that but it represents a missed opportunity to renew our commitment to diversity and equality.

It needs to be said again: our diversity is a great strength. It gives us the benefit of different viewpoints on how to meet challenges, and just makes life a lot more interesting.

Those who feel threatened by others who dress differently, look different, eat different food, or worship in different ways must be very boring people, to want everything and everybody the same.

But there are also some whose only answer to racism, ageism, terrorism and all the other bad, sad isms is to condemn, cancel and out-shout anyone who questions the finer points of an issue. It’s hard to find solutions when everyone is yelling.

I’ll be celebrating Canada Day again this year. I’ll fly my red Maple Leaf and watch the virtual and televised events, think a lot about what’s wrong and be thankful for what’s right.

While we must face up to hard truths, we’ve also got to hold on to the conviction that we can shed ourselves of the ugly parts of our past and create the Canada we’ve so long told ourselves it is.

And make the fine sentiments of Canada Day last all year long. As Kukpi7 Casimir says, “We cannot proceed to advance as a country without continuing to come together and talk and share experiences.”

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.