Just a few years ago, Canada Day was going through a serious identity crisis.
Calls to #CancelCanadaDay were trending in 2021 after preliminary findings from a ground-penetrating radar survey at a former residential school in British Columbia had found some 200 potential unmarked graves at the now-national historic site. In 2017, protesters with Idle No More descended on Parliament Hill, calling for a national day of action called UNsettling Canada 150 on the country’s 150th birthday.
Enter, Donald Trump and his threats to annex Canada if the country doesn’t voluntarily become the 51st state — something that’s dominated headlines this year.
“There is a switch this year suddenly,” said historian Matthew Hayday.
The threat to Canadian sovereignty has galvanized Canadians, the University of Guelph department chair said. This year, he expects celebrations with “the whole rhetoric of ‘elbows up’ and championing Canada.”
Trump’s taunts and very real tariffs may be driving a resurgence of patriotism, but while some Torontonians are heading to Ottawa to celebrate, some Indigenous people say their concerns remain and shouldn’t be forgotten.
“July 1 can, in some ways, be a microcosm of a given year of what the national mood looks like,” Hayday said.
A day shaped by tensions
Earlier this year, Canadians across the country were boycotting American products and cancelling vacations plans to the U.S. Those sentiments may not be as potent now, but for many the sentiment lingers.
Yao Ameyaw told CBC Toronto he’s still avoiding spending money south of the border, and he’ll be travelling to Ottawa for Canada Day.
“There is a bit of bad blood whether spoken or not, between us and America,” he said.
Patrick Shea and his wife will also be heading from Toronto to the nation’s capital. He agrees Canada-U.S. relations have “reinvigorated [Canadians] sense of nation and our sense of belonging together,” but hopes the tensions die down soon.
“It may pass like a kidney stone, but it’s going to pass.”
For Tira Cardinal, who is Indigenous, the holiday is an opportunity to spend time with friends, but she won’t be celebrating.
“I’m going to be wearing an orange shirt on Canada Day,” she said, adding that she isn’t surprised Indigenous issues aren’t front of mind for many Canadians this year.
“People hop on the bandwagon for a lot of things. Unfortunately, I think that’s how people in society are going to be.”
Brianna Olson-Pitawanakwat, a member of the member of Wiikwemkoong Unceded First Nation, said she’ll be spending the day rallying around her community and highlighting their resilience and resistance.
She’s the co-founder of the Native Arts Society in Toronto, an art gallery and studio space dedicated to celebrating and showcasing Indigenous artists, many of whom are survivors of residential schools or the Sixties Scoop.
“[They] are struggling with displacement, and deserve to be honoured on this day,” Olson-Pitawanakwat said.
“There’s been a big push with what’s happening south of the border for Canada to kind of relish in this hyper-nationalism. I think it’s really important to recognize that like the boundaries of what we call Canada today would not exist without Indigenous peoples.”
Recent bills could move the pendulum of public opinion
Already, the surge in patriotism — and protectionism — has led to threats against Indigenous sovereignty, Olson-Pitawanakwat said.
She compares Bill 5 in Ontario to Stephen Harper’s Bill C-45, a controversial omnibus bill that made changes to the Indian Act, the Environmental Protections Act and Navigation Protection Act to make it easier for pipelines to be approved on Indigenous land without the consent of affected First Nations.
That 2012 bill was part of what sparked the Idle No More movement that drove protests across the country and calls for Canada Day to be cancelled.
Olson-Pitawanakwat says, like C-45, the Ford government’s Bill 5 will also allow the government to expedite and approve energy project in Indigenous territories without local approval, namely when it comes to mining in the Ring of Fire.
“We cannot approve these things without free, prior-informed consent,” Olson-Pitawanakwat said.
Similar tensions are playing out at national level, too.
Prime Minister Mark Carney has signalled Bill C-5 could be used to greenlight and fast-track new energy projects, including pipelines, mines and other resource-related initiatives.
There’s already fear and pushback in some Indigenous communities about what it’ll mean for the consultation process — though both Carney and Ford have vowed their governments will consult.
“Right now, there is a lot more leeway for various actors to do things in the name of Canada,” Hayday said. And as a result, “Indigenous concerns more broadly are kind of getting shunted,” he said.
With the pendulum in one direction, this could be the moment that it starts to move the other way, Olson-Pitawanakwat said.
“This bill and the response are huge… and it’s only going to become more present.”
