The Washington Post. June 15, 2021. This piece on Canadian disunity by a contributing writer residing in Vancouver and forwarded to me by a VN subscriber near Oxford, England (yes, we’re getting out there!) makes for a somewhat uncomfortable read. Uncomfortable because the author argues that the Canadian Senate’s passage of a bill ensuring that Canadian laws are consistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and the discovery of the remains of 215 children on the grounds of a Kamloops residential school combine to justify Canada’s First Nations seeking sovereignty. That, he continues, is not much different from recent legislation in Quebec to declare that province ‘the French-speaking nation of the Quebecois people.’” And he concludes, “It says something about the failure of Canadian statesmanship that as we approach the country’s 154th birthday, Canada’s deepest, most intractable divisions are the same ones it started with.”

I’ll add that enshrining division is also consistent with Canada’s brand of multiculturalism, which advocates celebrating our differences rather than our commonalities. As suggested by the writer, the acceptance and/or endorsement of such separations may be the most important take away. It may also be the principle we need to understand some conflicts that happen locally, for example, in Nanaimo. Since “community” refers to a group of people with common interests, how do we serve differing interests while still fostering community anywhere within the country? A great question for this year’s Canada Day. [ARTICLE LINK]