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My whole life there was a certain pride in being Canadian that I never knew was there until recently. Having lived in a lot of different places from the US to China to Austria there was an underlying satisfaction to be from what I considered to be a pretty decent country. Yet now, after all, that has happened the past couple of years, I am truly ashamed to be Canadian.
Where did the pride come from?
It wasn’t until recently that I even put a finger on the fact that I was proud to be Canadian. Though after I realized it I took some time to do the soul searching to figure out what was behind that national pride. After all, I had always criticized patriotism. I found it dumb and had thought that I didn’t care much about the country I was from.
Yet looking back I see that an unknown patriotism leaked into my words whenever I spoke about my homeland. I was proud of our healthcare system, our people, our land, our level of acceptance, and most of all our reputation to the world.
Yet my experience over the last couple of years, both seeing things in the news and talking to various people I know from back home has completely shattered that pride, twisting it into a deep dark shame of my country and its people.
So what changed?
It’s hard to say. Not due to being hard to put a finger on it, but because of the fact that voicing what leads to my being ashamed to be Canadian hurts. A shame that cuts so deep that it forms a desire to carve out the parts that make me Canadian. If that I could. So let’s start with bullet points, in no particular order, of what led to this shame before addressing each point individually.
- Idiot of a prime minister.
- Handling of Climate Change
- Treatment of the Indigenous Community
- The anti-vax movement
- The sheer amount of racism, racial ignorance, and/or unacceptance as White Supremacy shows its fave
Idiot of a Prime Minister
What a weird place to start. Mainly because for so long I made excuses in my head for him. “He’s not as bad as Trump,” I would tell myself. Yet, not being as bad as someone worse is not a good measurement of a person and just goes to show my thoughts on him. If he’s not as bad as someone else, then I must think he isn’t very good. A poor excuse for him, but an excuse I made nonetheless.
Let’s go with some facts though. Before getting into politics Trudeau was a teacher, teaching a couple of subjects including Drama he was reportedly loved by his students. That Drama teaching really shone through when he was on a tour through India in 2018. His time there has come to be ridiculed by Indians who found his traditional formal garb choices to be “fake” and “annoying” to a point of being disrespectful. This tour is now known as a political disaster.
I will set aside the Blackface incident since he was young, dumb, and ignorant, but it still doesn’t look good. Even despite the times being different back then.
Although I agree with some of his political policies and disagree with others those are purely my political opinions. Which I don’t think has a place here. However, looking at his political practises I believe most would consider them to be sketchy at best and criminal at worst. Just look at the WE documents and how a majority of pages were blacked out or redacted from even the other political parties. Not to mention the fact that there are reports of several false claims made by Trudeau, up to five documented in one week, or the fact that the Paradise Papers showed his close advisor helped move huge sums of money offshore. There is also the fact that he refused to be transparent about where billions of dollars of Coronavirus aid went. Some supposedly going to Chinese state-owned companies.
It’s shameful.
Handling of Climate Change
The Nomadic Inscriptions team believes strongly in combatting climate change. So seeing how Canada is doing is truly shameful. With a large portion of their GDP (Gross Domestic Product) being oil, gas, and mining, the carbon output seems to be growing instead of lessening. Stating that they will be net-zero by 2050? C’mon Canada you can do better in less time.
Coming from Alberta, the oil capital of Canada, I saw how the oil patch affected the economy of the entire province. All attempts at diversification seemed to be opposed by most people I knew as a lot of people made very good money in that industry. It came as a surprise to me that a majority of Albertans voted against the expansion of mining in the mountains. Yet Trudeau still supports the expansion of the Trans-Mountain pipeline.
Still many people I talk to deny that climate change even exists despite Vancouver being completely cut off from the rest of Canada by land due to flooding. How can you not be ashamed to be Canadian when we are failing our world?
Treatment of the Indigenous Community
Growing up in Canada there were stereotypes about the Indigenous population that were less than friendly. A lot of people treated Indigenous people as “less than” or as “leeches and drunks”. I heard the jokes growing up, but never put much thought or credibility into them. For the people I knew in the Indigenous community were incredible people. Some of which were my best friends.
Yet during the pandemic, mass graves of Indigenous people were found. Showing just how deeply mistreatment of the Native people of Canada is engrained in our history. This led to large protests on Canada Day 2021 that, to me, seemed to go almost nowhere. In the end, the only real “change” I saw from outside Canada was Trudeau declaring September 30th National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. He then missed the first one to go on vacation with his family.
How can one not be ashamed to be Canadian if we can’t even treat the people who are indigenous to Canada properly? It’s more their country than ours
The Anti-Vax Movement
Just thinking of this gets my blood boiling. The amount of people from back home that I have talked to that are anti-vax is not only surprising, but also absolutely terrifying.
These people either disagree with or just straight up deny the science on these vaccinations. I keep hearing people say, “Well I have done my own research and have come to the conclusions that..” Blah, blah, blah. Sorry, not sorry, but unless you are doing peer-reviewed studies that can be published in scientific journals you are not doing your own “research” you are participating in confirmation bias of an astonishing degree.
It amazes me… I know hundreds of people worldwide. Outside of North America, I know zero people who have had, or know someone who has had, adverse effects from the vaccine outside of the expected sore arm and minor symptoms.
Yet somehow everyone I talk to in Canada who is anti-vax somehow knows someone who has had significant adverse reactions. All the way up to neurological impairments and disabilities. How is this possible? Is it perhaps a placebo effect derived from the paranoia of these people? How would you test for that even? Who knows.
This movement is not only shameful and stupid, it’s also dangerous. Just being from the someplace as some of these people make me ashamed to be Canadian.
My Worst Anti-vaxxer Interaction to Date
One interaction stands above all for me. Someone I knew from the middle of nowhere, Alberta (Which if you know Alberta it’s already basically the middle of nowhere) had some interesting things to say to me.
He had posted a screengrab of an article talking about how the human population was predicted to decline, wrongly attributing it to the vaccines. Now you have to understand that his entire facebook was a dedicated shrine to anti-vaxxer beliefs and misinformation of all forms.
I decided to comment on the real contributing factors to this predicted decline. How the population of China was predicted to decline due to the one-child policy that is no longer in effect. I used that to juxtapose the fact that although the west doesn’t have a one-child policy people are deciding not to have children in larger numbers than ever known in history. That being due to the huge wealth gap, not being able to afford children, concern about climate change, and not wanting to bring children into this world.
His response? “You’ve got some unblinking to due. Clearly, you have no perception of the global situation…..” There’s more, but it’s useless drivel. I refused to even answer, finding it funny. Someone who has never been more than a few hundred kilometres from where he was born claims that I have no perception of the global situation. It’s not like I’ve been travelling the world for 10+ years or anything.
Oh well, what can you do?
The Sheer Amount of Racism, Racial Ignorance, and/or Unacceptance as White Supremacy Shows its Ugly Face
Growing up in Canada I believed that there was little to no racism in my homeland. Chalking the jokes up to just harmless jokes that weren’t meant. When I spent a couple of years in America that belief was just reaffirmed as I witnessed grotesque examples of sheer hatred based on race. It disgusted me.
As I got older I learned just how much racial ignorance I had. As I worked to better myself I saw it more and more in other people. I saw the difference between jokes being racial ignorance and the people who had a true malicious prejudice hidden behind their jokes. I didn’t understand why it mattered how someone looks or where they were from, but some people hated it.
As my eyes opened more and more the more disgusted I became by the amount of hatred I saw festering under the surface of some people. Don’t get me wrong. I have made my fair share of mistakes and would be lying if I said I never would again. Yet the problem in Canada these past few years has gotten worse.
Freedom Convoy and White Supremacy
It comes to a climax with this Freedom Convoy going on in Canada. With some of the leaders having pasts riddled with white supremacy and racism there is no way this protest is about freedom. Coming at a time when a lot of the world is already reducing restrictions. All over Canada restrictions are being lifted or completely thrown out. Yet these protesters continue to hold Ottowa hostage as they openly fly Nazi symbols and flags.
This disgusting display is not about freedom. It’s about a much more sinister desire to hold and gain back white privilege and supremacy. It is absolutely disgusting and deepens just how ashamed to be Canadian I am.
To Sum Things Up
Between the sheer stupidity of the anti-vaxxer movement, the idiot that is Prime Minister, and the handling of climate change to the disgusting mistreatment of the indigenous people, racism, and a “Freedom” convoy that is more about white privilege and white supremacy than about freedom how can one not be ashamed to be Canadian? My country, my homeland, has become little more than a trainwreck that you can’t look away from. We could do bett- No, we should do better.
For the first time in my life, I am truly ashamed to be Canadian. How could I not be? I think I would rather choose to live in Austria again.
