Canada

Indigenous Canadian here from northern Ontario.

Happy Canada Day! I know that many people I know want to remind everyone of the terrible things that happened to my family and my people over the centuries .... I acknowledge that history but I also want to celebrate the significance of this country with you all today. We can respectfully acknowledge both at the same time.

I've been to over 30 countries in my life ... I've wandered into rural Morocco, toured into city Cairo, went around Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Burma, I've been to India, Sri Lanka, gone to Cuba, Columbia and Peru and I've seen lots of Europe. Between seeing the world as a third world hell or an unreachable wealth in the first world ... I know that we are very fortunate to be here in Canada, no matter who we are immigrant, indigenous, or born here ... this is a great country.

Also no matter your politics (except for the extremists) we have a good system ... very heavily influenced by money and power but every system in the world is ... but we have a good system that gets better all the time.

As terrible as the things that happened to my dad through the residential school which he was forced to attend ... he always reminded us of how great and amazing this country was. He lived through famine in the 1940s here in northern Ontario and he said that the fact that there are social support systems today means that people don't just starve to death.

In my lifetime, none of the political advocacy we conduct as indigenous people wouldn't be possible if we existed in an ultra conservative, intolerant government.

The one thing I want to see change is in dealing with extreme wealth and power in this country. There needs to be more wealth equality in this country and a system that spreads the wealth to more people everywhere. Corporations, companies, monopolies and the ultra wealthy shouldn't control our lives so much. And that is a change that would benefit everyone ... Indigenous and non indigenous.