As details emerge about more graves of Indigenous children being found at a former residential school, this one in Saskatchewan, a push is being made to have Barrie join other municipalities to cancel Canada Day celebrations.
A UserVoice suggestion was posted to the City of Barrie website asking council to consider cancelling Canada Day festivities “and working with local nations and peoples to find alternatives this year and in years to come," says the petition, which was posted late Wednesday night.
As of Thursday morning, it had more than 200 votes. If it reaches 500, city staff will distribute a memo to council members about the idea. City council will then have an opportunity to discuss and vote on the matter.
There are currently 16 municipalities across Canada that have voted to cancel Canada Day celebrations this year, including Victoria, Kamloops and Vancouver in British Columbia; Rankin Inlet in Nunavut; Belleville, South Huron Township, Assiginack Township and Wilmot Township in Ontario. There are also municipalities in Alberta, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan that have voted not to have Canada Day celebrations.
Those decisions came following the May 27 announcement from the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation, which confirmed the remains of 215 Indigenous children were found buried in an unmarked mass grave at the Kamloops Residential School.
It was announced Wednesday that unmarked graves on another former residential school site were found in Saskatchewan. On Thursday, the graves of 751 children were confirmed. The Cowessess First Nation says ground-penetrating radar recently discovered the graves at the Marieval Indian Residential School.
With the possibility of cancelling Canada Day celebrations, Barrie Native Friendship Centre (BNFC) executive director Samantha Kinoshameg told BarrieToday it is an interesting concept and one way for Canadians to understand what happened in the residential school system.
“Some of those thoughts are floating around in Indigenous country already," she said. "People are talking about wearing orange on Canada Day instead of red and white, and also having lawn signs that say ‘Every Child Matters.
“I think the petitions are a great way for other Canadians to get involved and have a better understanding about what happened and has happened," Kinoshameg added.
The suggestion on UserVoice, which was written by Brandon Rhéal Amyot, asks that Barrie city council follow the lead of the those other municipalities, particularly the city of Victoria, B.C., by holding off on “any announced plans for Canada Day 2021 and do nothing further with respect to July 1 events this year.”
The suggestion also asks the city to work with partners such as Beausoleil First Nation, Rama First Nation, Georgina Island First Nation and other local First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples and organizations to “explore and implement alternatives to the July 1 ‘celebrations’ to be held virtually and/or in-person, as public health measures allow, by Sept. 30 (Orange Shirt Day).”
Kinoshameg says she has put a lot of thought into the Canada Day concept recently.
“I’ve been thinking about how you would feel if somebody hurt your loved ones. Taking that concept and saying that these systems that have been put in place and in existence for over 100 years, have hurt people’s loved ones in this country,” Kinoshameg said. “What would you do? What are you going to do to address that?”
Coun. Keenan Aylwin took to Twitter this morning to promote the online suggestion, saying society needs to have "serious conversation about what that day looks like."
The Ward 2 councillor also told BarrieToday he understands that some people will be "uncomfortable" with the topic of cancelling Canada Day celebrations.
"I understand that this conversation and idea will make a lot of people uncomfortable and that’s OK. As a settler on this land, I think it’s important that we sit in that discomfort and work to understand the true history and ongoing reality of racist colonial violence on this land,” Aylwin said.
“We should feel uncomfortable about the genocide carried out on this land," he added. "We should feel uncomfortable about the many injustices that Indigenous peoples still face today. This is about learning the actual history of this place we call Canada, not erasing it. Fervent nationalism obscures our actual history.”
Aylwin said he has reached out to other city councillors to see if they would be willing to second a motion to achieve what is laid out in the petition, but admits time is of the essence.
“Unfortunately, we only have one opportunity to pass this through council on Monday before July 1,” he said. “Even if this doesn’t go ahead this year, it’s something we need to have a serious conversation about before next July 1.”
Aylwin stressed that this would be the “very least that we can do to respect the families of those who were killed in the genocidal residential ‘school’ system.”
Kinoshameg said it is one thing to show support, and it's another to act with support.
“Social media outpouring is one thing, but are people writing their MP and MPP, demanding that changes be made rather than just saying this is horrible? When the 215 children were found in Kamloops, the flags were lowered for 215 hours," she said. "What has anyone done since then beyond lowering their flag? And what does it look like if the flags are lowered for every child found dead in the residential school system?”
It is approximated that up to 30,000 Indigenous children died in the residential school system. That would be 1,250 hours, or 41 months, of flags being lowered.
The link to the UserVoice suggestion can be found at this link.
