Toronto Star columnist tries to cancel Canada Day

Toronto Star columnist Shira Lurie, a radical academic, has written a column for the Toronto Star where she advocated for cancelling Canada Day, instead opting for a day of reckoning and guilt.

The columnist suggests that instead of celebrating Canada, we should make more room for "histories of dispossession, enslavement, internment, or discrimination." Lurie calls for "no fireworks, no flags" and no "O Canada" but instead, silent guilt and shame.

Lurie says that Canada was founded on "genocidal violence of settler colonialism" and claims a verity of groups have struggled for "their right to exist."  She argues that Canada Day "serve only to reify status quo power structures and deny the experiences of marginalized communities." She continues, "Instead of singing the national anthem, let’s pause and reflect on the many lives that the building of the Canadian state has cost."

Lurie has also called Canada a "ridiculous country," saying she feels "deep ambivalence" about returning after a trip abroad. Lurie has participated in the "scholar strike" to fight "racial injustice" last September.

Lurie also called much of Canadian history "whitewashed stories" and said that "racism and inequality" are to blame for "Black and Indigenous peoples" being disproportionately incarcerated. Lurie says Canada Day "erases the many victims of Canada’s nationhood." Lurie's push in on par with many radicals who seek to cancel Canada Day and replace it with some sort of social justice holiday. Victoria, BC has already followed suit.