It may be easy to dress in various Canada Day T-shirts from a big box store that could even have been made overseas.
In 2017, Canada, as a nation on paper, celebrated its 150th Birthday.
That same year, a growing chorus of voices tempered what had been planned as mass celebrations, as many among us chose to reflect on unfulfilled recommendations contained in the 2015 reports of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Add to that, the 2019 Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls.
Then, shortly before Canada Day 2021 came news of the discovery of remains of Tk’emlups residential school pupils buried in unmarked graves.
That’s Ann Pohl, spokesperson for the Kitchissippi-Ottawa Valley Chapter of the Council of Canadians.
While Sir John A. Macdonald, deemed by many as the Father of Canada (and among key originators of Canada’s Residential School Policy) is no longer on the nation’s ten dollar bill, and most public meetings now begin with a Land Acknowledgement Protocol, Indigenous leaders are largely impatient with our progress on issues that speak to the core of how we look at ourselves as “Canadians”.
As well, the Red Dress now has symbolic importance.
Many Indigenous community leaders are calling for people to wear Orange Shirts or, if you prefer Red Dresses, on Canada Day.
The Kitchissipi-Ottawa Valley Chapter of the Council of Canadians is standing in solidarity with this attire as befitting the occasion, and are urging like-minded Canadians to do the same.
Their message is please consider ReconciliACTION on July 1st.
By Rick Stow