Some thoughts on the flag, the Ottawa Occupation and freedom

I was in and around the periphery of the #OttawaOccupation twice today, including a stroll past the counter-protest at city hall. It remains beyond surreal and deeply upsetting that downtown Ottawa has been overrun in this lawless and ugly way.

Today for the first time I was particularly struck by the distressing place of the Maple Leaf in all of this. The flag is everywhere: attached to the front grills of tractor trailers, flying from hockey sticks in the back of pickups, displayed on highway overpasses, worn as capes, held out of passing truck windows by kids...  The sea of red and white almost surpasses Canada Day on the Hill.

I’ve never been a particularly ardent flag-flyer. And like many Canadians, if anything I have felt a decidedly somber rapport with the Maple Leaf during this past year of national reckoning about residential ‘schools’, and our country’s history and reality of genocide.

To risk oversimplification, I appreciate that for the most part the flag has remained largely unpoliticized in Canada, unlike in many other countries, including our southern neighbours.

So it troubles me deeply that it is now seemingly the brand of a movement, an occupation, a siege, an insurrection (just what do we call it) that is infused with white supremacist, selfish, harmful, reckless, threatening, racist, misogynist misinformation and hate. And that it has flown alongside or been defaced with other flags and images that are toxic messengers of the very vilest hate. (And today I noted a number of vehicles flying a confused trifecta of the Maple Leaf, Fleurdelisé, and Stars and Stripes.)

I had no impulse to carry the flag today, and very rarely do. But I realized that if I had felt so inclined, I wouldn’t have done so. Because today on the streets of my city our flag is so directly and visibly being displayed to stand for so much that I stand against. And when I was walking in and among those enthusiastic flag bearers, I felt menace, not pride.

I’m not suggesting a determined campaign to reclaim the flag.  Not sure what that would entail and not comfortable with the military type analogies of recapturing and holding a flag.

But I do know this. Let us hold strong and close to each other friends. Let us lift up a Canada in which freedom is grounded in true community, liberates & empowers everyone, acknowledges and strives to reconcile with the shameful chapters of our history, and believes ultimately in human rights for all.  

Let that be the Maple Leaf Forever.