Canada Day - 1 Jul 21

I woke up this morning and sat out front sipping my coffee while my pets frolicked nearby. I was surprised by all the garbage bins lined up with precision along the sidewalk. I wondered if they had forgotten it was Canada Day? I pondered how I would celebrate Canada Day, on a day that everything is still fairly shut down due to Covid. Yesterday I learned that my hair stylist had retired. I cannot blame him. I was fortunate to have had him and he is like an icon who was always there. I made an appointment for next week, when I will also getting my second vaccine. I shall wait for two weeks after that for things to proceed more normal. When I am fully vaccinated, I will once again venture out into the world with cautious optimism. It has been quite a year where I lost a very close friend to Covid as well as a few out of country relatives. I have taken Covid very seriously and went entirely online for my work even though I altered my office, ridding it of any comfort to be replaced with wooden/metal chairs and the minimum of books. It now looks empty, sterile and uncomfortable but as safe as I was able to make it. However, I will still remain closed. I pondered after learning that my hairstylist retired what that would feel like. I have never been retired for more than a month. During this pandemic in my business I was very busy and have evaluated once again my associations. Before the pandemic I would enjoy taking a day off the week to enjoy the theatre and explore the sites of my city which seems to be forever changing. I miss my city. It is like being in a womb with the urgency of escaping and living life. It has been quite a year for everyone and I have been more aware than ever of my own privilege. As the heat is killing hundreds out West due to intense heat including pets, I am kept cool, though again in isolation. I have had air conditioning since I was a young person living with my parents. I don’t think we needed it then, but my mom wanted it and she got it. It used to give me a headache then but now it is no longer a luxury but a necessity. This Canada day I am missing my parents. This has much to do with the pandemic. This year has been a learning experience. I had my eyes shut for too long, again mostly because of privilege. I have had the freedom to always choose whether it was my school, profession, education and/or life style. I learned the value of work from my father. He was dedicated though he always made family a priority. To this day I am always early and prepared. I don’t know what it would feel like not to work because I have been doing it since I was thirteen years old (part time of course at that age). I had my own bank account at that age and would shop for my own clothes and entertainment. I learned to be independent but also learned about having fun at every opportunity including work. This is all because of family learned values and also the opportunity that Canada has given me. I don’t know who I would be if I had not been raised here. That is what I can celebrate today. However, today as I have been watching the news, we also have shame in how we have treated our Indigenous people. The Aboriginal bodies found buried in unmarked graves at Residential Schools sites is a dark scar on our history. Children should never be taken away by force from their families for no reason other than thinking one race is better than another. It broke my heart as I heard an Aboriginal woman talk on the news that she used to use bleach to try to wash away the darkness of her skin. She said that Natives were not believed to have a soul. I knew that slaves leaving for Canada for freedom was restricted to them as Canadian Slaves remained so as to not upset the elite. We have our sins. The residential schools have not been closed all that long. I believe it was in the seventies. I believe a criminal investigation has to be conducted and criminal charges laid. Ignorance is no excuse under the law. It is ironic that just about a week before this scandal was brought to light, I watched a movie based on a true story about an American woman who returned to Ireland to find out what happened to the son she gave birth to and who was taken away from her as a toddler, at a home for girls also taken care of by nuns. She had the help of a reporter who helped expose how children were given away to rich clients. The nun responsible for this was still there and very uncooperative. She still believed that she was right and had no empathy. This woman’s son had been adopted by an American family and he too returned to Ireland at that same place to find his mother. Both were deprived even years later of being united. This involved more than one old woman. As a Roman Catholic this is all very disturbing because all of this is so much against the concept of Catholicism. I have had the honour of knowing so many wonderful priests and nuns. However, like in any institution or corporation or country there are people who are a reflection of their own biases, cruelty, kindness etc……The residential school was a systemic notion that the white man knew better. This wasn’t only a problem with the Church, but also the government and the education system. How does one think that it is ok for a child not to be able to speak her own language, to be taken from her parents and to be forced into another religion concept which is so far removed from what Catholicism is. As Canadians we have a lot of work to do and it should begin by taking responsibility for our wrong doing and to do some serious work in stopping an arising bigotry like I have never seen before. There is too much hatred spreading like weeds. There is a notion of freedom being an expression of hatred in harming others. That is not freedom. Freedom is for everyone who walks in our country to be able to feel safe and have the opportunities that are for everyone equally. We need to educate more because something is obviously lacking. We need to rethink how we are dealing with those who harm others. We need to protect our children so they can grow and prosper. It is time to take a good look in the mirror and decide what kind of person we each want to be. It should begin in school to learn to be mindful and respectful and to begin the dialogue of the similarities we all have as individuals as well as our differences. We need to understand and learn world religions, cultures and politics. We need to stomp out all this negativity and imposition on the rights of all of us by not only education but justice. There has to be accountability. So this Canada Day, I shall enjoy the day and do no work. I shall play as I look into the future for change and growth. Happy Canada everyone. My thoughts are still in Miami as well hoping for a rescue. Thoughts and prayers this day for all who are suffering.