Wanted, Canadian Flag Please Return!
Carol-Anne Pasemko
Executive Director at Grande Prairie Regional Association of Volunteer Organizations
Let’s start talking about our Flag. You know that red and white one with a Maple leaf. The one that has been conscripted into a symbol of belligerence and intolerance. In recent months, we have seen the association of our Flag combined with the symbols of intolerance, racism and fascism. Our flag is being used to identify those who believe that the rules and laws of Canada do not apply to them, that they as individuals are more important than the common good and that they have a right to publicly attack and victimize anyone who disagrees with them.
?The apparent disrespect for people with opposing views is seeping into all things political. We see it in the top levels of government, the contempt and disdain modelled by our elected leaders exhibited daily, and the inability to have a constructive debate that results in a positive outcome for all involved.?
?Never was it more apparent than the recent verbal attack on the Deputy Prime Minister, who happens to be a woman and a member of a political party that does not have a majority of followers here in Grande Prairie.?
?This was not a legal protest, this was an assault, plain and simple and it was wrong! For the most part, the cries from most of our political leaders to denounce the attacker’s behaviour were immediate, condemning the attack and being clear that it was not to be tolerated. Unfortunately, a few did make a statement but blamed the victim. Some political leaders should have but chose not to denounce the attack.
?One is left to wonder if it was because the victim was a woman or because she was a member of a different political party or both. Silence can be louder than words! To stay silent on such egregious behaviour or to victim blame implies that one condones the assault of an elected representative of our Country.
?There was a time when trust and innocence defined Canadians. Although culturally similar, we were not as brash and unrestrained as our southern neighbours and we were not sophisticated and worldly as other western cultures. We were reliable, tactful and for the most part diplomatic both within the Country and globally.?We had an inherent understanding of the common good and unqualified acceptance of our conventions and personal duty to make things work.
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?My maternal grandmother set the tone for my own, my siblings and my cousin’s growing up years in what it meant to be Canadian. To believe in a system of caring for others and looking after the Common Good was of the utmost priority. From a long line of United Empire Loyalists, she was able to align our family history within the Country’s history and gave us the gift of understanding that Canada was our greatest asset and that we had to uphold the laws and support its people to the best of our abilities. Those values were ingrained into our very beings and we pretty much all entered into ‘helping professions’ – environment, police, military, teaching, medical, social work, law and politics.?
?My grandmother’s generation lived through two major wars, a pandemic, a depression era and numerous other challenges. They made mistakes, some pretty intense ones but there was not the nastiness that is currently swirling in our political landscape and the ‘me first’ mentality that has become the go-to position of so many today. So, what happened?
?One could go on at length about social media, echo chambers, generational change and a host of other reasoning. I truly have no idea and frankly don’t care what the reasons are. I just know that I want my flag back and to do that we need to take the lessons of the past to heart and get back to respect and honour, duty before self and mindfulness that being Canadian is something we should be proud of and need to work at.
?Carol-Anne