This year, as we mark Canada Day, we reflect on the challenges that our country is facing as well as the ability and desire of Canadians from coast to coast to combat injustice and inequality across our great nation. The response to COVID-19 has resulted in countless everyday heroes showing that our compassion and commitment to each other is our strength.

We also recognize the urgent work and healing that must still take place to address atrocities experienced by Indigenous Peoples. There is a crucial call to action for this country to unite in pursuit of rebuilding a more inclusive and diverse Canada where the words “glorious and free” are a reality for all. We can do this together.

In the gracious words of Cadmus Delorme, Cowessess First Nation Chief, “In 2021, we all inherited this. Nobody today created residential schools. Nobody today created the Indian Act. Nobody today created the Sixties Scoop. But we all inherited this. And if we want to say we’re proud Canadians, then we will accept the beautiful country we have today, and we will accept what we all inherited. And what I would challenge is: Everybody on Canada Day in this country, if you say you’re a proud Canadian, read the Truth and Reconciliation ‘Calls to Action.’ Over 100,000 residential school survivors told their story – including my parents – and they created the Truth and Reconciliation ‘Calls to Action.’ Bring that into your personal life, your social life, your business life. And read the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls ‘Calls to Action.’ There’s 231 Calls to Action. If we can all own those a little bit in this country, in one generation we would overcome so many challenges today, that our next generation won’t inherit this. We will make them more as Dreamers.” The Truth and Reconciliation ‘Calls to Action’: http://trc.ca/assets/pdf/Calls_to_Action_English2.pdf Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls ‘Calls to Action’: https://www.mmiwg-ffada.ca/final-report/