[…] National Telegraph […]
Written By Wyatt Claypool, Posted on June 28, 2021
Conservative Member of Parliament for Calgary Nose Hill, Michelle Rempel tweeted today in agreement with the President Adam North Peigan, from the Sixties Scoop Indigenous Society of Alberta, who said that Calgary should scale back or outright cancel Canada Day celebrations due to the discovery of unmarked graves of children at residential schools.
Peigan stated that.
It’s a travesty and it’s devastated the Indigenous communities right across Canada and has reopened a lot of the pain and suffering we had to endure…So we’re asking Canadians and Calgarians to take a pause and really take that opportunity to reflect on that day on what has happened on Turtle Island. (Turtle Island being a reference to North America)
Rempel wrote “And we should listen” above a quote tweet of the Calgary Herald story quoting Peigan, which she followed with a string of tweets conflating past events and practices already ended for their inhumanity with today’s Canadian society.
And we should listen. https://t.co/dmKbwWC3NH
— Michelle Rempel Garner (@MichelleRempel) June 26, 2021
Nobody would contend that the unmarked graves are horrific, representing the neglect, and abuse that was rampant in the authoritarian residential school system, but Rempel is grandstanding on this issue by implying “you” are uncomfortable with the topic.
It is as if Michelle Rempel believes Canadians living today, who had nothing to do with the residential school system, should feel uncomfortable as if being Canadian transfers some level of guilt that only a lib-con like Rempel can help us work through.
MP Rempel also made a longer version of her Twitter posts on Facebook, responding to what President Peigan said, which can be boiled down to her saying “we should celebrate” Canada Day we should do it in such a way that doesn’t make us feel a “false exceptionalism,” so basically we can celebrate but only in a self-loathing sort of a way. Rempel basically wants to have her cake and eat it too by saying we “should” celebrate Canada Day but only in a left-wing way that makes it all about why Canada is bad.
It feels like the height of arrogance for Rempel to pretend as if the topic of residential schools has never been spoken about until she came along. Back in 2008 Prime Minister Stephen Harper formally apologized to survivors of residential schools and sought real-reconciliation by the government of Canada, but Rempel seems to believe no reconciliation was truly real until she came along.
Rempel is of course justifying the ramping down or full cancellation of Canada Day celebrations as if the celebration of what Canada is in 2021 is tantamount to an endorsement of the residential school system.
If anything Canada Day is celebrating both past achievements of Canada and what the country has overcome, including moral failings like residential schools.
I myself also respectfully disagree with President Peigan. I do not believe it is morally correct to expect Canadians today to possess some form of generational guilt for things people in the past did, potentially even before their own families immigrated to Canada. If there are problems we can solve today, like the lack of clean water on reserves, then the Canadian government should be directing more of their focus to solve that issue.
President Adam Peigan (Photo from the Toronto Star)
We could also agree that the Canadian government itself could do more in the aftermath of the discovery of the unmarked graves, maybe even finding a way to pay respect to the forgotten children by giving them names and memorializing the sites in Kamloops and Cowessess so that the events are not lost to history.
Cancelling Canada Day would only unnessesarily divide Canadians. Those who celebrate are going to be viewed as somehow bigoted by radical progressives like Rempel, who will year after year likely keep pushing for the holiday to be canceled by unfairly portraying it as a celebration of negative points in Canadian history.
Nations become divided when inclusive symbols, like the flag, or holidays become viewed as divisive even though they are supposed to represent all of those who are a part of the nation.
Canada Day is not a rejection of Indigenous people in 2021. If anything Canada Day is a celebration of everyone who has become a part of the project that is Canada, especially First Nations people, and renewing our commitment to trying to make the country better every year.
(Photo from the National Post)
In regards to Michell Rempel this just shows once again she is more preoccupied with being on the cutting edge of left-wing progressive movements, and views average Canadians, that she relies on the votes of, as socially beneath her, and that she needs to talk down to them on issues like residential schools as if they believe the abuse of Indigenous children was not a major black mark in Canadian history.
In 2021 we celebrate Canada Day in part because residential schools are now a thing of the past, but Rempel seems to want them to be an issue of the present all Canadians must pay penance for.
Wyatt is a student at Mount Royal University, where he is the president of its Campus Conservative club. In his writing, he focuses on covering provincial and federal politics, firearms regulation, and the energy sector. Wyatt has also previously written for The Post Millennial.
[…] National Telegraph […]
A well written report. Thanks for your effort. It raises awareness.
[…] National Telegraph […]
August 25, 2024
August 20, 2024
Look at how many liberals ran for the old PC party because it was the only way to get power in Alberta.
What happened in the past was terribIe; but it was not the onIy terribIe thing that a country has gone through. TerribIe things happen aII the time; and strong nations Iearn from their mistakes, and do their best not to repeat their errors.
What we are deaIing with today, is a group of poIiticians who are using Identity poIitics to divide the nation and garner votes and power for eIections. Justin Trudeau has worn bIackface so many times he can’t remember how many incidents there were. And he caIIs conservatives racist. Justin Trudeau sexuaIIy assauIted a young woman reporter…..and said she just "experienced it differentIy" and that is good enough for the CBC…..but Trudeau says Conservatives are a threat to women; because some of them think kiIIing an unborn baby is somehow wrong.
Whenever you hear a poIitician start a speech by "recognizing the traditionaI Iands of…." you know you are deaIing with someone who subscribes to the identity poIitics game; and they are Iooking for votes from first nations peopIe.
If there is any reason not to ceIebrate Canada Day this year, it has nothing to do with our past. If Canadians don’t feeI too happy with the country today, one simpIy has to Iook at the group of incompetent misfits currentIy Ieading it.
I will be celebrating Canada Day while two-faced Rempel and her hypocritical woke fellow Conservative MPs will be joining in dancing closely in lockstep with Justin Trudeau and Singh and the rest of Central Canada who disrespect and deny our proud heritage in Western Canada.