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Whether or not you had been in Surrey, British Columbia, or Coutts, Alberta, or Windsor, Ontario — or, particularly, if you happen to had been in Ottawa — you noticed a sea of red-and-white Canadian flags rippling within the winter wind throughout this 12 months’s protests in opposition to the federal authorities and pandemic mandates, identified to some because the “Freedom Convoy.”
Within the months since, the sight of Canadian flags mounted on automobiles and pickup vehicles or flying outdoors properties has some doing double takes: Is that flag an emblem of protest or of unity?
Canada adopted its maple leaf flag in 1965, the ultimate chapter in an extended and very contentious debate over whether or not to desert the Canadian Purple Ensign, the previous flag with a Union Jack within the prime left nook and a coat of arms on the underside proper.
Far-right teams — together with the Proud Boys, which was co-founded by a Canadian, Gavin McInnes — have latched onto the Purple Ensign in veneration of white settler historical past. In 2017, 5 members of the Canadian Armed Forces had been amongst a bunch of Proud Boys who carried the Purple Ensign flag whereas confronting Indigenous protesters in Halifax on Canada Day.
However neither the outdated Purple Ensign flag nor the present maple leaf one has ever turned a lot of the nation into flag fanatics. By and enormous, Canadians simply aren’t that into it.
“There are nonetheless some individuals who ostentatiously fly the pre-1965 flag, an indication of disapproval however, it’s sort of arcane,” stated Robert Bothwell, a professor emeritus of Canadian historical past on the College of Toronto. “It’s a must to be moderately refined to know what” it’s, he stated, including “so I don’t see that changing into a well-liked motion.”
Flags had been traditionally used to paint or give expression to Canada’s political actions and sentiments, Mr. Bothwell stated. Notably in Quebec, flags got here to indicate whether or not the individual waving them was a separatist, nationalist or federalist.
“Canadians are proud concerning the flag, however the query, not solely with the ‘Freedom Convoy,’ is what does it symbolize?” stated Richard Nimijean, a historian and teacher at Carleton College in Ottawa.
“It’s vital to do not forget that we at all times renegotiate these symbols and what they imply,” he added.
The organizers of the convoy have stated the flags that demonstrators carried represented the rallying cry of their protest, “Freedom!” However some Canadians stated that after the protests, they might really feel cautious about utilizing the flag to convey nationwide pleasure even on Canada Day.
“I shouldn’t need to really feel awkward, and that’s what bothers me most,” stated Brian Lewis, who’s operating for a Metropolis Council seat in Hamilton, Ontario, a metropolis west of Toronto. “I’m happy with my nation and what it stands for,” he added. However, Mr. Lewis stated, in February, he began “to get seems” for flying a Canadian flag on his automobile.
“I’m sitting in a parking zone of a grocery retailer proper now and I’m somewhat bit disenchanted,” by the dearth of flag shows, he stated throughout an interview on Thursday. “However I perceive why, completely, and it’s unhappy.”
Claudia Laroye, a Vancouver-based journey author, stated driving previous one of many convoys in British Columbia through the winter gave her the impression that the flag had been “co-opted.” She stated the convoy left “these of us who didn’t agree with that messaging questioning how we might fly it and never seem like supportive.”
“We’ll show it this 12 months to contradict that messaging, in our personal small means,” Ms. Laroye stated in an electronic mail.
Lots of the symbols interspersed between Canadian flags on the protests final winter represented American politics: flags and posters for Donald Trump, Gadsden flags bearing the phrase “Don’t Tread on Me,” posters of the U.S. Invoice of Rights and Accomplice flags.
The organizers disavowed these symbols, however the pictures raised some eyebrows. “I didn’t know you possibly can secede from a rustic you weren’t part of,” Stephen Colbert joked in a February section of his late-night present, referring to the Accomplice flag sightings.
Whereas these imported symbols have little historic relevance to Canada, they’ve come to broadly symbolize values related to the far proper, showing prominently through the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot.
The preponderance of flags on Jan. 6 was “sinister,” stated Mr. Bothwell. He added, “It actually was meant to indicate that they’re the true Individuals and the folks contained in the Capitol will not be, and I feel that has precisely the identical that means because the flags” of those that protested on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
[Read: Was Canada Trucker Protest a Blip, or the Start of Something Bigger?]
The “Freedom Convoy” started in January with loosely organized teams of truck drivers making their means from different components of Canada towards Ottawa to oppose vaccination mandates on the U.S. border.
However the protests quickly attracted different Canadians expressing basic antigovernment sentiment in gentle of pandemic restrictions, immobilizing downtown Ottawa and a number of other border crossings for weeks and prompting questions on legislation enforcement officers’ pleasant response.
Early on, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau dismissed the protesters as a “small fringe minority” and rebuked some for desecrating public monuments and wielding Nazi symbols.
The Ottawa police ramped up safety this week for Friday’s celebrations, boosting parking patrol and towing greater than 70 automobiles between Wednesday and Friday. Fences had been erected round buildings, together with the Supreme Courtroom, and police made at the very least 5 arrests within the lead-up to festivities.
Whereas folks concerned in February’s motion promised to resume their protest on Canada Day, they had been vastly outnumbered by cops and households making their solution to the primary official celebrations since 2019. Late Friday afternoon, nonetheless, one group a few block lengthy paraded across the perimeter of the capital’s downtown waving flags and shouting “freedom” earlier than gathering on the Nationwide Battle Memorial to sing “O Canada.”
The tense buildup to this 12 months’s celebrations took on a distinct tenor from final July, when many individuals flew their Canadian flags at half-staff and referred to as for the cancellation of vacation plans after a whole lot of unmarked graves had been found on the websites of former residential faculties for Indigenous youngsters.
Trans Canada
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A.O. Scott, The Instances’s chief movie critic, reviewed a brand new documentary referred to as “Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Track,” about Montreal’s most well-known crooner.
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In Op-Docs, The Instances’s award-winning sequence of brief documentaries, the photographer Kitra Cahana brings an intimate view “on what it means to be alive in a state of profound isolation.” The sequence is narrated by her father, Rabbi Ronnie Cahana, who resides in a long-term care facility in Montreal.
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There’s not a lot of Toronto in “The Man From Toronto.”
Vjosa Isai is a Canada information assistant at The New York Instances. Comply with her on Twitter at @lavjosa.
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