EDITORIAL: Woe, Canada: No day to celebrate

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When one of Canada’s largest cities cancels its Canada Day parade and one of its universities stages an “Anti-Canada Day” BBQ, it’s time to admit we’ve become what former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau bragged about: A post-national state.  

For the second year in a row, Montreal’s Canada Day parade has been scrapped. In a press release, organizers said the popular event was canned due to “ongoing planning disruptions, strained relations with city departments and unresolved challenges stemming from municipal worker strikes.”  

City officials maintain it was all a bureaucratic mix-up, with organizers failing to submit a permit application, despite being invited to “on several occasions.” A spokesperson insisted to CBC that there will be a Canada Day celebration in that city.  

“A land-use permit was issued this year to Production EGP for the Le Canada en Marche event to be held on July 1,” said Nicky Cayer.  

All is not lost. Montrealers still hankering for a celebratory hot dog can hop over to Parc Jeanne-Mance for a free “Anti-Canada Day” BBQ and fundraiser put on by the Palestinian Feminist Collective. Posts advertising the event display the Quebec Public Interest Research Group (QPIRG) logo from McGill University. QPIRG is a student-funded resource centre at McGill. Its website says the university is threatening to pull funding if it continues its support for Students for Palestine’s Honour and Resistance (SPHR).  

Canada is a country built on values of equity and freedom; a place that has welcomed millions of immigrants and refugees from around the world. They’re valued for their culture, hard work and ambition. Bilingualism flourishes and we attempt to accommodate our differences while celebrating that which unites us.  

And yet, a major city can’t get its act together to put on a parade to extoll those values. A world-renowned university that receives significant tax funding is being torn apart by the oxymoronic “feminist Palestinian” group that’s protesting events thousands of kilometres away.  

Gaza is an overwhelmingly patriarchal society, where women, gays and lesbians must fight for the freedoms we take for granted.  

In “post-national” Canada, there are some who prefer to drag the Maple Leaf in the mud on July 1, rather than hold it high in the pride of place where it belongs.