July 2021
www.connectornews.ca
VOL. 30, NO. 3, JULY 2021 POWERED BY KAMLOOPS THIS WEEK | A PROUD PART OF ABERDEEN PUBLISHING
How to access the Butler Urban Farm Page 2
Canada Day Schedule Page 5
A fresh artist arrives at the KAC Page 5
Are cows addictive? Page 16
Morning Sickness Page 17
Canada Day 2021 promises to be different
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Photographer Aislynn O’Brien captured this colourful painting on the Shore and entered the photo into Kamloops This Week’s Photo of the Month contest.
ome B.C. municipalities are opting to cancel Canada Day festivities altogether this year even though in most cases the festivities are once again virtual. In light of another year where COVID protocols are overshadowing everything there is the added impact of the confirmation of at least 215 unmarked graves at the site of the Kamloops Residential School. This sobering reality has prompted Canadians in general to rethink what it means to be Canadian. Many of us will need help reframing our national identity as we get used to the idea that our so-called founders were not the heroes we thought they were. As architects of a genocidal regime against Indigenous peoples, it is imperative to understand this legacy and how it impacts our society to this day. In a statement that previously appeared in Kamloops This Week, Tk’emlups Kukpi7 (Chief) Rosanne
Casimir said the band wants people to continue to acknowledge Canada Day. “The best way to honour our country and the diversity of its citizens — and particularly this year, our future generations — is to understand our real collective history. For Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc, we would like to encourage all to learn more about the colonial legacy of the residential school and the intergenerational impacts that it has had. We also want people to understand the racism and discrimination that Indigenous Peoples face daily,” Casimir said, “Part of what it means to be Canadian is to recognize mistakes and learn from the past. We cannot proceed to advance as a country without continuing to come together and talk and share experiences. Take this opportunity on Canada Day to do some research, watch some Indigenous
movies, listen to APTN (Aboriginal Peoples Television Network) and, most importantly, in your own way, honour all the lost children of the residential schools across Canada.” The City of Kamloops is working with the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation to make the virtual celebration more relevant. With new, more open protocols related to the pandemic, one municipality (Kelowna) has suggested their decision to cancel festivities is more to encourage people to get out and support local restaurants and businesses as they get closer to business as usual. Others have pointed to the grief and soul-searching resulting from the revelations about the residential school system. The normal celebrations are simply not appropriate. Regardless of how we accomplish it, comunity building and reconciliation is long overdue and necessary. Canada needs to change.
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