On Canada Day and the Fourth of July

I can't imagine such a thing happening in the US but the city I live in now, Victoria, British Columbia, has canceled celebrations this year for the day that commemorates Canadian confederation, the day that is often thought of as "Canada's birthday." It marks a call to make reconciliation become something real, something more than just saying the right words.

In the USA, the Smithsonian kicks off a new summer tradition that feels past due. Because real patriotism relies on critique. What's the point of democracy if you can't talk about longstanding injustices in the country you love? How else can we make a genuine effort to solve them?

Books can help:

48 books by Indigenous writers to read to understand residential schools, curated by David Robertson

Meet the Amplify Black Stories Storytellers

In a nice cross-border collaboration, the Civic Season's themes were determined through a series of Socratic dialogues with young people and educators and then visually expressed in this graphic by Canadian artist Corrina Keeling - Love Letters for Everybody

Excerpt from the web site of the New Civic Season, running from Juneteenth through the Fourth of July:

The first Civic Season is about expanding the lens, making space for more stories from the past, more voices from the present, and more input on what an annual tradition for civic participation could look like.