Can You Be a Proud Canadian While Knowing Canada’s True History? A Canada Day Reflection

This morning after I put on my orange shirt to support Indigenous Rights, history, truth, and reconciliation for Canada Day, I walked outside my door to see raised Canadian flags in my neighbourhood, flying high and proud in their red and white glory.

As the juxtaposition of the colours and symbolism further ignited the moral war within my gut, I found myself pondering whether it is possible to still be a “proud Canadian” while being aware of, fighting for, and supporting Indigenous Rights. This question of continuous exploration is a living and breathing paradox inside me.

“They” say that two things can be true at the same time, even when seemingly contradictory, so I’m going to unpack this a bit as I examine my ever-evolving identity and experiences as a Canadian on this day of celebration of when Canada became a country.

My “Canadian” Roots

Like many, I am a fourth- and fifth-generation Canadian who is a product of an immigrant family heritage. While my family did not participate in the initial colonization of Canada, the Swiss-German part of my family directly participated in and was a part of Canada’s Confederation.

My great-great Grandfather, John Fischer emigrated to Canada from Switzerland in 1855 and was twice the Mayor of Waterloo, Ontario, holding office in 1908 and again from 1912-1913. Fischer’s most notable contributions during his office involved coming up with strategies for the treatment and prevention of smallpox within the Kitchener-Waterloo area. Some ways in which modern me wouldn’t necessarily support.

John Fischer, Photo Credit: City of Waterloo Museum

On my father’s maternal side, their Irish family sought refuge in Canada in the late-1800s like many families who suffered through the famines in Ireland.

My mother’s side is also made of Irish immigrants, and what was known as “WASPs” or white Anglo-Saxon Protestants from Scotland who settled in Montreal in the late 1800s or early 1900s in search of a better life.

They found it.

Because of the privilege of being able to settle in Canada, my relatives were able to reach the Canadian version of the “American Dream”, because “Canada” had set it up that way through colonization.

When the lineage eventually trickled down to me, because of my relatives of prior centuries’ decisions to emigrate to Canada, I was given a good life when I was born in 1983 to a family with a chemical engineer father who spent his career at Texaco and Suncor.

Sarnia’s “Chemical Valley”, Photo Source: Ecojustice

As I look back at this, it’s not lost on me that my privilege comes from using the resources of colonized land, not to mention within Chemical Valley in Sarnia, which is located on the territory of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation, and even up to this year had refineries releasing carcinogenic benzene into their lands.

My “Canadian” Catholic Education

I grew up Catholic, not by choice; it was a decision made for me by my parents, who at the time thought they were doing the best thing for me given what they knew. Naturally that led to a Catholic education, where we were taught about the “supremacy” of Christianity, not to mention the reigning self-supremacy of Catholicism.

I will admit I did learn a bit about Indigenous cultures in my elementary school education. We learned how First Nations, Inuit, and Métis lived and about some cultural practices, living arrangements, and how food was sourced. Being close to London, Ontario, we took a class trip to Ska-Nah-Doht Village, which is a recreated longhouse village crafted to reflect how the Haudenosaunee lived over a thousand years ago.

Ska-Nah-Doht Village and Museum, Photo Credit: Tourism London

We did NOT learn about colonization – at least in the Catholic education system.

During my elementary school education, a very monumental event – the Ipperwash Crisis in 1995 – was when I became informed of the demonization, attack, and murder of Dudley George by the Ontario Provincial Police.

At the time, the message around nearby Sarnia and within the counties was that George as well as the rest of the Stony Point First Nation were deserving of this attack. Eight years later, the deeply embedded racism within the OPP and the Ontario provincial government was revealed, yet it didn’t relieve the ongoing stigmatization and racism against First Nations within my hometown. I can remember being very confused at this time.

Memorial for Anthony “Dudley” George at Ipperwash Beach, Photo Source: Anishinabek News

I cannot remember learning much about Indigenous cultures in my Catholic high school, save for my American History course when we did learn a bit about colonization of the United States, but not Canada.

The Wool Over My Eyes

I went to Wilfrid Laurier University for my undergraduate degree starting in 2002, then thinking I wanted to be a teacher, and this is where I feel like the wool was pulled over my eyes the most. I chose to take a Combined Honours in English Language & Literature and History because I loved books and found history extremely interesting. While I cannot find solid evidence of this, I believe at the time Laurier educated its students within arts and history from the European and British perspectives.

I can remember taking a religious studies course where there was a lot of emphasis placed on what the Iroquois did to the Jesuits during their colonization of the Huron Nation rather than what the Jesuits did to the nations they imposed themselves on during their Christian missions in what was known then as New France. Even in my early Canadian history courses, I remember learning more about how the British and French settled in Canada and created the structure of the country it is today, rather than the means through which it was colonized.

Three courses in my undergraduate degree made me think more critically, albeit too late in my education to have effectively applied them in my studies. “The Philosophy of History” and “The Social History of Canada” at Laurier and “Literary Theory” taken at The University of Limerick in Ireland on exchange were the courses that taught me the necessary critical tools to deconstruct, analyze, and understand history and who it’s written and interpreted by.

Had I not taken these courses, I may have just left university with the idea of believing everything I read about Canada.

Examining My “Canadian Pride”

I “came of age” in the 1990s; an era when Canadian culture was popping, especially in the rock music scene. As a rocker to my core, I enthusiastically participated in the Canadian alternative scene of that decade.

The Tragically Hip, I Mother Earth, Odds, Our Lady Peace, Barenaked Ladies, Moist… I can go on and on about how much I loved this genre of music that was going strong in 1990s Canada. I STILL listen to that music and I still consider it a big part of my Canadian identity.

In 2000, Canada was given one of the most monumental commercials that defined Canadian culture. Anyone around at that time will remember the Molson Canadian commercial: “I am Joe and I am Canadian”, where your average Canadian Joe makes very large, yet nuanced, generalizations about what a Canadian is.

Molson Canadian Commerical, 2000, Photo Source: Speakola

Joe starts his rant and declaration with “I'm not a lumberjack, or a fur trader. And I don't live in an igloo, or eat blubber, or own a dogsled.” Ok Joe, go on… after reciting a bunch more Canadian-isms Joe says: “I can proudly sew my country's flag on my backpack. I believe in peace keeping, NOT policing. DIVERSITY, NOT assimilation, AND THAT THE BEAVER IS A TRULY PROUD AND NOBLE ANIMAL!”

Talk about a country with an identity crisis, but, I think anyone would agree that for the average white middle-class Canadian, a lot of this rang true and boosted “Canadian Pride”.

In a lot of ways, while it was just a commercial, it defined Canada as something it wasn’t and isn’t, also perpetuating a false sense of Canadian identity that continues to be embedded in the attitudes of the majority of multi-generational white-European Canadians.

The small maple leaf within my tattoo sleeve is permanent evidence of my own Canadian Pride, even if the intent of getting it was to proudly distinguish myself from Americans while travelling globally.

When “My Canada” REALLY Changed

There were a few monumental events in Canada’s recent history and in my own recent career that contributed to my knowing that my idea of what Canada was and is, and needed to change drastically and that my learning process was far from over.

In 2008, Canada began to take accountability for what happened in residential schools when then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued an official apology, yet it hadn’t fully been revealed to the general population all that had happened within the residential schools. While we began to learn more then, for many, including myself, it was also easy to stay comfortable in the “I Am Canadian” mindset that Joe had introduced us to eight years earlier.

Thankfully, eventually, the truth began to trickle down slowly into my own life and more strongly permeate my understanding of Canada.

As mentioned above, I was always a big fan of The Tragically Hip, with the late Gord Downie being an instrumental part in opening my eyes to the damage done in residential schools as he told the story of Chanie Wenjack in the film The Secret Path.

God Downie and Jeff Lemire, “The Secret Path”, Photo Source: SecretPath.ca

As we came to know, Chanie fled a residential school in 1966 to find his family and died from starvation and exposure. While Gord Downie sadly died, he will forever be, to me, one of the most monumental Canadian figures in helping Canadians learn about residential schools and Canada’s colonial history. What is not lost on me, though, is that it took a famous white person to lift the wool off mine, and many others’ eyes. Before, we had been just ignoring the damage done to Indigenous peoples through colonization, cultural genocide, and forced assimilation.

2021 was also monumental when Canada was finally made aware of the mass graves that had been found in and around residential schools. We were forced to examine our history, what we thought about our country, and what we could do in the future to make reparations.

Truth & Reconciliation as a Passing Fad

The start of this decade was met with an influx of “caring about racism”, first with the murder of George Floyd in the U.S. in 2020, followed by the revelation of the child murders that had gone on in residential schools the following year.

While a lot of white people began talking about these revelations while Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke of how “horrified and ashamed” we were, many of us rushing out to buy orange “Every Child Matters” t-shirts and talking about it online, caring about racism as well as the practices of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Indigenous Relations became a fad that quickly faded.

In my eyes, it was easier for Canadians to continue not to care than to care – for fear of what effective Truth & Reconciliation would mean for the “Canadian Dream” (read: Sarnia City Councillor Bill Dennis’ reaction to a Chemical Valley plant closing as a result of releasing harmful chemicals into the Aamjiwnaang First Nation).

As 2023 report published by the Yellowhead Institute revealed, Canada is miserably failing at achieving the 94 Calls to Action around Truth & Reconciliation. So much so, that the Yellowhead Institute said they’ll no longer be putting in the efforts to track and report on Canada’s Truth & Reconciliation progress. This certainly doesn’t make me feel very proud to be Canadian.

Getting Closer to the Issues

Personally, the most monumental events for me came in my research work. In 2021 I was given the opportunity to research and examine attitudes across the 39 Anishinabek First Nations toward cannabis regulation. It was through that experience and learning about various perspectives toward joining national regulated systems, such as the legal cannabis market, that I was introduced to issues around sovereignty and self-governance, with some First Nations choosing to go the way of the Province of Ontario, and many more staying steadfast in the pursuit and growth of the sovereign Indigenous cannabis market and the preservation of self-governance in Canada.

Map of Indigenous Dispensaries, Source: Dispensing Freedom

This project was a profound learning experience for me because it was a microcosm from which I could examine the relationship between Indigenous peoples and Canada. People who followed my work at the time will remember when I took quite a hard stance when 14 British Columbia regulated cannabis retailers tried to sue the provincial government for $40,000,000 for not cracking down on sovereign dispensaries – a case that was later thrown out and for good reasons that were obvious when it all began.

Following that, in 2022, I was given another opportunity to analyze data from five First Nations and produce a research report with recommendations regarding adjustments to social assistance programs in Ontario using Jordan’s Principle, or a substantive equality lens.

Canada defines substantive equality as “a legal principle that refers to the achievement of true equality in outcomes. It is achieved through equal access, equal opportunity and, most importantly, the provision of services and benefits in a manner and according to standards that meet any unique needs and circumstances, such as cultural, social, economic and historical disadvantage.”

In other words, to achieve equality, adjustments need to be made to systems made from colonialism that take into account that some people’s “starting point” within social assistance programs is a direct result of colonization.

Despite these profound experiences, every day I’m reminded that my learning process is far from over.

Blending the Joy of Being Canadian with A Realistic Understanding of Canada

On this Canada Day, as I sit on the stunningly beautiful Vancouver Island on the unceded territory of the Snuneymuxw First Nation, with a Snuneymuxw burial ground at the bottom of my street that dates back 3500 years (across from a 7-Eleven and Petro Canada station), I realize that I am not the Canadian I was before. Nor should I be.

I am thankful to be here. I am happy to be Canadian and having lived in a couple of places around the world, I know there is no country I’d rather live in, even if I’m pretty disillusioned and scared for its future.

I am happy that all those years ago, my European, Irish, and Scottish families were able to seek a better life than they had in Europe in Canada, as many families and generations have been able to since. I am grateful that I was given a good life by my father’s career and the home we lived in.

But all those things I’m grateful for came at a very grave expense, which is why it’s been so necessary for me to adjust my own Canadian identity and how I approach my own duties in truth and reconciliation work.

With Words for Impact, I have re-ignited my passion for knowledge systems and Community Based Participatory Research, where in every project and undertaking I ask myself how we can decolonize, dismantle, deconstruct, and democratize knowledge, health, economic, and every other system that exists in Canada.

I fully embrace the Community Based Participatory Research methodology of “nothing about us without us”, as well as the First Nations Principles of OCAP® as I consider my future community research opportunities that may involve Indigenous Relations.

I have a long journey ahead of me as I unlearn everything I knew – or thought I knew – about Canada and re-learn the truth of Canada’s history. I was profoundly impacted by the course I took from the Indigenous Relations Academy called “Working Effectively with Indigenous Peoples®”. This course taught by Bob Joseph further opened my conviction to question what I know – especially when I realized the asinine methods that colonizers used to label Indigenous peoples as “primitive” and therefore not human, starting this whole disgusting act of colonization in the first place that has had multi-generational negative impacts.

Through my intentional learning process, I’ve realized that I prefer a lot of Indigenous principles and “ways of knowing” to the ones that guide “white” society, including the Turtle Island creation story (which varies by community, but to me sounds more viable than God born to a virgin), the Anishinaabe and Cree worldviews of Bimaadiziwin (“in a good way”), “Etuaptmumk”, the Mi'kmaq word for “the gift of multiple perspectives” or “two-eyed seeing”, collective rights, and the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) “Seventh Generation Principle” where decisions in the present are made in the interests of how seven generations into the future may be affected in the name of cultural survival.

I can’t wait to learn more.

As I mentioned in the start of this article, two things can be true at the same time. Today, as I reflect on my Canadian identity wearing my orange shirt on Canada Day, I realize that I can continue to enjoy and appreciate the privilege that comes with being “Canadian” and various aspects of Canadian culture, like 90s alternative music. I can also be grateful for the good life I had and the privilege I was given.

However, in my enjoyment, I can also intentionally continue to become aware of, understand, and hold space for Canada’s true history and the fact that we committed genocide to be here.

Through this informed perspective, I can continue to find ways to do my part towards truth and reconciliation for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis people through my work of Words for Impact and as a citizen of my area and this country.

It’s a true balance, two-eyed seeing, that may not always be comfortable, but imperative.

I have collected some resources about Indigenous Relations in the Resources section of my website with hopes it may be helpful to other Canadians who are evolving within their Canadian identity.