It was good seeing so many flags in my neighbourhood today - for the first time since 2022 not thinking "frigging Convites." Was wondering what it must be like for people in Ottawa and found this on the cbc:

Even if [Robin Seguin, who owns Victoria Barbershop, which has been operating out of the basement of a government building at the corner of O'Connor Street and Wellington Street in Ottawa's Centretown for more than 100 years] had been able to forget the sight of those [burning, upside down, written on] flags, she said her business has since changed in ways that serve as an inescapable reminder of the convoy.

"The building is on permanent lockdown, and what used to be the entrance to the barbershop is now called a man trap," she said, explaining that customers used to come and go freely and now they have to ring a bell to be let in by security.

...

Brad Green, the owner of World of Maps on Wellington Street West, said he "chokes up, thinking about it."

"It's like they hijacked our flag and took its meaning and made it something else," Green said. "They twisted it into this dark and evil and wrong thing."

[Carmen Celestini, who studies disinformation, extremists and conspiracy theorists at the University of Waterloo] said people in "Ottawa encountered things that the rest of Canada were [only] seeing on television."

"I think that for the rest of Canada, and I would genuinely hope for Ottawa as well, that [Flag Day] is an opportunity for us to show the best of who Canadians are," she said.

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[+] jerkface@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

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[–] n2burns@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

While I fully agree with you about the Canadian Flag being a symbol of colonialism, I think that's unrelated to this article.

I believe we need a different symbol to represent the People of Canada.

I think this is the part of your comment where you miss the mark the most. The flag isn't what needs to change, it's the people and their government. Even before the convoy, I was wary of people who would go over overboard on national pride, saying something like, "Canada is the best country is the world! It's the perfect country!" (often while holding one or two flags and wearing multiple pieces of Canada apparel). I think Canada is great, but we're not perfect, especially when it comes to "a most important relationship." We need to be better and do better before considering a different symbol, otherwise that change is just for show. And as the Convoy demonstrated, the meaning of a symbol can change. Maybe as we evolve as a country, the meaning of the Canadian flag will evolve with it.