Member-only story
Canada Day: Recognition for me. Displacement for thee.
Canada Day produces in me, as well as the indigenous population of Canada, a sentiment of ambivalence and discomfort.
Canada celebrates its 157th birthday today, July 1, 2024, and as a result, it celebrates just how successful the British Empire was in establishing a beachhead on this continent, advancing its interests for the benefit of the monarch, and lastly, displacing the peoples who had lived here for generations if not thousands of years before them.
British North America Act, 1867
“An Act for the Union of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, and the Government thereof; and for Purposes connected therewith.
WHERES the Provinces of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick have expressed their Desire to be federally united into One Dominion under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with a Constitution similar in Principle to that of the United Kingdom.”
The British Empire bestowed upon a select number of provinces the freedom to govern themselves under the ministerial eyes of the English monarch. Truly, Canada to this day is called a member nation of the British Commonwealth, a soft-on-the-tongue terminology used to identify a nation-state that still recognizes the rulership of the British Empire whilst having the…
