The nation, widely known and admired for its tolerance and kindness, is fraying thread by thread.
Thread by thread, the idea of lovely Canada is coming undone.
Some, if not many, Canadians are likely to consider my indictment as a click-bait-driven exaggeration or hyperbole. There is, I think, more than a measure of truth in that uncharitable opening sentence.
This nation, widely known and admired for its tolerance and kindness, has changed and is changing in ways that call into question Canadians’ understanding and appreciation of what has allegedly made Canada different from other, much more turbulent and much less generous places in the world.
The discovery over the past two years of mass, unmarked graves of Indigenous children – victims of the cruel, forced assimilation by white, evangelical settlers – has proven, of course, to be a blunt antidote to the myth of “caring, considerate” Canada.
The country is only beginning to confront and make tangible, not rhetorical, amends for that historic injustice and inhumanity.
The notion of enlightened Canada was wounded – perhaps beyond repair – after the usually sedate capital, Ottawa, was occupied in early 2022 by an army of obnoxious extortionists who wrapped their ignorance and selfishness in the maple leaf and claimed the flag as their own with such grating arrogance and certainty.
Like petulant children, they were loud and impatient, consumed by incoherent anger that made them blind to the necessity of sacrifice in pursuit of a greater and common good that the pandemic and extraordinary circumstances demanded of each of us.
The residue of their irritating pettiness and fictitious grievances not only lingers like a persistent rash, but is also being exploited by rank, myopic politicians who confuse tantrums with “freedoms” to sow division and mistrust.
It was a sad, depressing spectacle which confirmed that a familiar, sinister strain of extremism – born of illiteracy and faith in lunatic conspiracy theories – had metastasised into and throughout Canada with all the sorry, corrosive consequences.
The image of a quiet, peaceable Canada has been defaced by wannabe insurrectionists who, despite the incessant honking, bouncy castles and makeshift hot tubs, had real designs to overthrow a sitting government to satisfy their rage-fuelled political aims.
