80 cities and towns respond to Idle No More’s calls to #CancelCanadaDay
June 28, 2021
80 cities and towns respond to Idle No More’s calls to #CancelCanadaDay
At least 80 municipalities in 10 provinces and territories have decided to cancel Canada Day events, in the wake of the discoveries of over 1300+ unmarked graves of Indigenous children at residentials “schools.” The cities and towns include Victoria, Vancouver, Yellowknife, Iqaluit, Guelph, Thunder Bay, Fredericton, Dartmouth, and dozens more.
“It is heartening to see 50 municipalities cancelling Canada Day out of respect for the grief Indigenous peoples are going through. Every other city and town should follow suit,” says Idle No More co-founder Sheelah McLean. “Stolen Indigenous land and stolen Indigenous lives are not things to celebrate.”
Cancel Canada Day protests will take place from coast to coast to honour all of the lives lost to the Canadian State – Indigenous lives, Black Lives, Migrant lives, Women and Trans and 2Spirit lives – all of the relatives that we have lost. They will honour our collective connections to each other and to the Water, Land, and Sky.
“Cancelling Canada Day is the bare minimum recognition of the ongoing colonization and genocide perpetrated against Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island,” says Idle No More co-founder Sylvia McAdam. “The genocide of so-called residential ‘schools’ never ended. It continues today and we’ll use our voices across these lands for MMIWG2S, Child Welfare, Birth Alerts, Forced Sterilization, Police/RCMP brutality and all of the injustices we face.”
Over 15 Cancel Canada Day protests are planned for July 1 including Vancouver, Enderby, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Sarnia, Ottawa, Thunder Bay, Toronto, Brantford, Montreal, St. John’s, Guelph, Peterborough, Capilano, Regina, and Saskatoon.
Details on Cancel Canada Day actions from coast to coast are available at:
