2020/07/01

Canada Day, 2020

Happy Canada Day! It's complicated.

I am descended from an Abenaki, an Azorean, an English child captured from the Massachusetts Bay colony, a couple of German-speaking people, and a few hundred people from French provinces from Picardie in the northeast to Aquitaine in the southwest.

Most of my ancestors came to farm the land along the St. Lawrence River below Québec, where Haudenosaunee people had lived but no longer did as the result of a previous war with neighbouring Indigenous people. The Haudenosaunee had not forgotten and were never happy with settlers on their land. The settlers did make treaties with the Algonquin, Abenaki, and other peoples with whom they traded goods for furs. Some of my ancestors settled in Acadia among the peoples of the Wabenaki Confederacy until they were driven out by the British and went to join the French settlers along the St. Lawrence.

The colonists lived along the river between Montréal and the Gaspé for about 140 years.  Then British troops, which had fought for control of that land for many years, finally made their conquest. The Treaty of Paris in 1763 made it official: the French-speaking settlers were now subject to the English Crown, and the lands they had controlled and the lands of the Indigenous people around them became part of British America.

Generations of my French-speaking family lived as British subjects. My great-grandparents were born in Canada East, British America. In 1867, the Canadas East and West joined New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to form the Dominion of Canada. The official date of proclamation was July 1, originally called Dominion Day and now called Canada Day.

Confederation did not alleviate rural poverty in the new province of Quebec. Within the next few decades, my great-grandparents left for New England. Two great-grandfathers started their own businesses. Two worked in the mills, as did many of their children. I was born in New England and grew up speaking English. French-Canadians in New England mostly assimilated, but our names and culture kept us somewhat apart.

Twenty-six years ago, I was allowed to return to Canada, although much farther west than Quebec. I  became a permanent resident and later a citizen. My great-grandparents and grandparents and parents had done well in the United States, but for me Canada always felt like home.

Now I know much more about the history of my own family and of the land than I did when I moved here. I learned about the Indigenous peoples with whom my ancestors had traded and fought. I learned that among the settlers had been Indigenous servants and enslaved Africans. I learned about the Indigenous people of the Pacific coast that I moved to and of early settlement by people of colour, including a colonial governor of Barbadian descent. I know far more now than I did when I innocently "returned" to the country whence my ancestors had come.

Knowing what I know, I can't celebrate Canada Day quite as I once did. It's still a day to commemorate, but it's also a day to remember my ancestors who fled from British conquest and poverty and oppression. It's a day to remember the people who have lived on these lands for more than 10,000 years. It's a day to remember the enslaved and oppressed people who built the country for others to enjoy. It's even a day when I remember my land and people from "only" four hundred years ago in Europe, a blink of an eye relative to the time before my people came to this part of the world.

I am thankful for the privilege of living here and doing well, staying healthy (so far) in the midst of a global pandemic. I am thankful to have learned so much about the land I call my country. I am thankful for everything that has brought me here and looking forward to what this uncertain world might bring. There is always more to learn.