Canadians are up in arms following various municipalities implementing woke initiatives at Remembrance Day ceremonies that featured lengthy land acknowledgments, pro-Palestine activism and overlooked the true importance of the day — honouring fallen soldiers.
Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek faced backlash for a six-minute-long land acknowledgement during the city’s ceremony.
“These are greetings in the traditional languages of the treaty seven people who stewarded these lands for generations before many of us came to settle here,” Gondek said after referencing various Indigenous languages.
“Land acknowledgment is like the leftist prayer that they have to say before any event,” said one user.
“I was born here; this is my home and native land. She is a settler,” said another.
Another X user claimed that Gondek was the worst mayor in Alberta’s history.
The reaction was not limited to Calgary. In Toronto, similar sentiments emerged when Aretha Phillip, the city’s Chief of Protocol, began the city’s Remembrance Day ceremony by focusing on Toronto’s colonial history.
“The City of Toronto acknowledges all treaty peoples, including those who came here as settlers, as migrants, either in this generation or in generations past, and those of us who came here involuntarily, particularly those brought to these lands as a result of the transatlantic slave trade and slavery,” said Phillip. “We pay tribute to our ancestors of African origin and descent in keeping with this tribute during this Remembrance Week.”
One user responded that veterans don’t need lectures about land claims, colonialism, racism, or other virtue signalling and pandering on Remembrance Day.
“This isn’t about you; not everything is about you,” wrote the user. “This day is about our military, past, present, and their families. If you aren’t getting up to the mic to speak about service and sacrifice, then just sit down. We don’t want to hear it. Save it for another day when people are willing to put up with your virtue signalling.”
Retired General Rick Hillier also offered his two cents on Phillip’s speech.
“We are nothing but ‘sheep’ to put up with this condescending lecture at any time, but especially today. A day devoted to those who served and sacrificed to build a country that doesn’t have that. Shame,” he said.
“What an ignorant and insensitive thing to do. Move aside, let us mourn our fallen soldiers and thank them for their sacrifice,” responded another user.
A different X user said that these municipalities had not learned their lessons from the recent election in the United States.
“Vote all of them out; leave not one left,” wrote the user.
The Remembrance Day ceremony in Saanich, a municipality on Vancouver Island, featured a reading from the Quran, the central religious text of Islam. Also, the poem that was originally scheduled to be read was allegedly replaced by a 14-minute land acknowledgment.
Journalist Tristin Hopper, who shared the post, highlighted that the Quran’s addition follows “the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust by Islamists screaming ‘Allahu Akbar.”
“So again? Why not? Not after 9/11, not after the Parliament Hill attacks, not after the Quebec City mosque massacre. 103 years and we start not for absolutely no reason?” he asked.
Saanich’s decision to recite the Quran comes as the Department of National Defence previously told True North that military chaplains would refrain from using any “faith-specific” or “exclusive” language at Remembrance Day ceremonies.
The municipality of Saanich wasn’t the only one trying to appeal to Muslims on Remembrance Day. Sir Robert Borden High School in Ottawa decided to play a Palestinian protest song during their ceremony.
The principal sent a letter to parents apologizing to “anyone who was hurt or offended” and promised to review the school’s procedure for music selection.
“Even their apology is disrespectful and biased,” wrote one user.
Pro-Hamas protestors invaded the Remembrance Day ceremony in Kingston.
One X user deemed the protestors showing up as “disgraceful, disrespectful, and vile behaviour.”
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre responded to the many instances of wokeism.
“What an absolute disgrace that so many woke activists & authorities used Remembrance Day to push their divisive and radical causes, denigrating our history and the brave military members who sacrificed for it,” he said. “We are a proud country with a proud history, and everyone who lives here should be grateful to call Canada home.”
