So with the rest of the day gone by and nothing else to do, I enjoyed the rest of my day in Stouffville. We ate at a restaurant called Symposium Cafe and we had this amazing server. The food was also amazing. If y'all ever decide to hit me up in the woods, go there to eat. And if y'all need to eat some form of protein, get the mussels marinara. It's delicious. And ask for a server named William. HOLLAH!
Anyway, after we ate, we headed down to the annual Strawberry/Canada day festival. It was a drive and walking distance down to a park... and it was my first time at a community gathering so it was really different, and i wanted to get myself acquainted with the area. Since it was a little town, parking was basically free for everybody in the city. There was food, a small local band covering songs, food trucks, police just chilling, kids riding and running around and their parents just chilling... I'm literally chilling because it was super cold outside. We saw fire works, and that was basically it.
Nothing special about this Canada day really. I didn't even feel the need to display my national pride anywhere on my body...
Mainly because of the introduction of Bill C24.
Now for those who's heads up in the clouds imma bring you back down into the water/onto the ground where you belong.
This Bill was introduced to us by our "lovely" Canadian government in order to "prevent terrorism," and there is a SHIT TON of things wrong with this bill.
This bill came from fearmongering. If you have dual citizenship, (actually, even if you also DON'T and decide to get one) and if the government feels that you are doing something "terrorist-like", or "espionage-like", they can easily deem you as a terrorist and kick you out of the country, without the judges' consent. Except so many Canadians are immigrants and therefore have dual citizenships. There are literally thousands - no, MILLIONS of us who know someone with dual citizenship or are immigrants, or know someone who have immigrant parents.
I quote from the Global News: "The law as it is could strip someone who is not a terrorist—like Mohamed Fahmy—of his Canadian citizenship, because some court in some other country has said that he’s a terrorist.”
On top of which you could also be easily deported/life-banned if you decided to leave Canada and step foot into your own country.
First of all, under the Canadian charter of Rights and Freedoms, Section 7, every individual is equal before and under the law, and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability. The Charter also guarantees our fundamental freedoms of conscience and religion, thought, belief, opinion and expression, freedom of the press and other media of communication, freedom of peaceful assembly, and freedom of association.
This bill basically removed this right. To deny this right to millions of Canadians, and to legalize this kind of discrimination based on where we are from or who we are, just because the Harper Government fears terrorist activity, is inexcusable, unacceptable, unconstitutional, and moreover extremely racist.
And second, Harper Government, how the FUCK dare you. This so called "BILL" gives the government the kind of power that is common in dictatorships.
If you want to make obtaining Canadian Citizenship harder for people coming into Canada henceforth, fine, be my guest. But don't make thousands of us who ARE Canadian "second class," and then claim US as terrorists. Like what the fuck is this? The middle ages? Using that kind of logic, that must mean every single white person who currently lives in Canada, who has ancestors enslave the indigenous peoples of Canada, are "second class" and are therefore terrorists as well. Which also means Harper is a terrorist because only terrorists remove the rights and freedoms of so many people.
Third, if you don't think this "bill" affects you in any way shape or form, you are highly mistaken. It's that kind of mentality that created concentration camps of Japanese Canadians and Chinese Canadians during world war two. Completely backward in thinking, I tell you. The next thing you'll know is that they'll take away our right to hold property, jobs, education... ugh.
We are a supposed to be a country built on love and freedom. Canada is supposed to be a cultural hotpot where everyone gets along and no one judges each other, and are united because of our individuality. We do not need another reason to judge each other just because of the idiotic acts of a few terrorists.
This entire Canada day weekend leading up to the big day had (and still has) got me fuming and so utterly ashamed to be Canadian. Ashamed that we are repeating the same backwards mentality only meant to be in the history books. Ashamed that this is what Canada is becoming - a once great country being ruled by unconstitutional mind frames intending to inspire fear in us to get us to support their ideology.
"True North, Strong and Free"? Not the case any more.
