A Grove of Ashes and Aspens

Mild trigger warning: brief mention of genocide

Now Playing: Fallen Timbers by Wind Rose

Canada Day is one of those holidays I don’t really know how to feel about. Hear me out.

On the one hand, yeah, it’s cool that the country exists and is a separate, autonomous entity and can do stuff. I love that and I’m not sure what life would look like otherwise.

On the other hand, the entire country is built on the genocide of Indigenous peoples and the intergenerational trauma caused by the Catholic church and the systematic destruction of many cultures across Turtle Island. And that was entirely caused by white Europeans coming here, seeing people living in a way they considered “primitive” and considering them lesser for it.

This isn’t to say that people shouldn’t celebrate or do anything for the holiday itself. It’s more of a situation of what each person wants to do with it. I don’t really do much for it, usually. I usually just go see some fireworks with a friend, but beyond that, maybe go to one of the free concerts downtown during the day.

The only thing that really bothers me more than just a mild sense of not being fully sure how to feel about the day overall is when people get all worked up over it like it’s some big deal. I’ve never really considered most holidays here in Canada to be a big thing, but that may also be my own bias coming into the mix. (I don’t really care for holidays, they’ve had a tendency to involve going to church and dealing with a lot of family growing up, and that gets very tiring.)

Point is, it’s a complicated holiday for me and I have a tendency to just do my own thing anyway.

/rant over