Okay. Canada Day is coming up and for all the people who read this column regularly, and I mean both of you, I need not tell you again how much this country means to me. But you know I will.
As an immigrant from 1953 I have benefited enormously from growing up here. I grew up with Foster Hewitt and the Leafs, the Argos, Uncle Louis, Dief the Chief, the Red Ensign, the Red Feather and so much more. And if you are old enough to recognize all those great Canadian names you are either an old girl or an old man like me.
I love this country. I love everything about it. I agonize over Afghanistan and Stephen Harper but it is the very nature of growing up here to question things that we support. It is the foundation of why this country is so great. It is the foundation of freedom. Free speech and respect for all in this land. God bless all in this house!
As I grew up I realized that even though important people like our teachers told us to respect everyone and treat others equally, they did not always do that. But somehow, through time, we got it.
When my family first got here in 1953 we had some hard times from folks that did not like us because we were foreigners, but through the years we managed. We were different from the moment we got here because we were not from here.
But we grew up here and we became a part of here. We had families and became even more diverse. Now my sister is in heaven and her children have children. As do my children.
From 1953 on down my family has become these things religiously and ethnically: Lutheran, Jewish, Anglican, Catholic, Baptist, Pentecostal, German, Polish, English, Irish, Aboriginal, Italian, Filipino, and to my great chagrin we are Scottish as well (just kidding Martha). If I forgot someone forgive me, I’m pretty sure that’s everybody.
My point is this. We were able to become this wonderful diverse family because of Canada. This is what this country means. What this country stands for is what we are. We are all different and we are all the same together. This alone is what makes us great.
That’s why I get chills when I hear our national anthem. It brings me near tears. I am so very grateful to this country. I am so proud of this country.
It may seem to some, perhaps many of us, that the pendulum is swinging the other way these days. People coming to this country today are not managing to come together. They are not becoming Canadian.
Maybe so. There sure are lots of problems. There are people coming to this country who have religious beliefs and ethnic backgrounds of hatred for other religions and ethnic cultures. They congregate amongst themselves and they are not assimilating. They are not being Canadian.
Maybe so. We have problems among those who have been here for a while as well. Their concerns are old but their freedom to protest and act out seem relatively new. Aboriginal Peoples arrived here before we did and even though they too have ill treatment to others in their history, they have been blocking railway lines and highways for the past few decades to demand quicker settlement to their claims.
There are also people in this country that do not like gay people. They don’t want them to get married and do not want them to live differently.
It goes on and on. We have all kinds of problems.
I can’t tell you the solution to all these problems because I am not that smart, but I have a humble suggestion. Give it time.
All these new people with their imported problems and all these old people who are newly emboldened to protest internal problems will eventually have children, grand-children and great grand-children. Hopefully they will all become Canadians that are all mixed together in a few generations. I’ve seen that happen. I have lived it.
Meanwhile it is our job to keep up the fight for everyone to keep their freedom to argue, protest and complain. It’s the Canadian way.
How about we raise a glass all together on Canada Day eh?
Heino Molls is publisher of REM. E-mail [email protected].
