End the use of the term ‘something-Canadian’

posted June 9th, 2020 at 12:00 PM

I am a Canadian citizen. I happened to be born in Canada almost 70 years ago, but that is not the point as it doesn’t matter if I was born in Canada or if I ( or my family ) made a conscious decision to come to Canada and become Canadian citizens. A Canadian citizen is a Canadian citizen, period, end. My ancestral family came to Canada in 1840 from England. This origin again matters not…I do not now, nor have I ever, identified as an “English-Canadian”, or any other “something-Canadian”. I am a Canadian citizen, period, end. It should be noted that people born in Canada, like me, are never called on to swear allegiance to Canada, while those that do make a conscious decision to come here and help us make this country a good place to be do swear allegiance to Canada ( and to the queen, but that is a different subject ) While we are on the subject of origin though, I will say again that I do not now, nor have I ever, identified as ’something’ other than, well, just me, a Canadian…even though no less of an authority than the U.S. based organization National Geographic’s Genographic 2.0 Project tells me ( after testing my DNA ) that my ancestry is comprised of 2% native american, 17% southwestern asian, 37% mediterranean, and 45% northern european. Further, spread across all of the foregoing ancestries, I apparently carry a 2.9% portion of neanderthal in my make up. The point of this ancestral information is simply for the sake of my own curiosity, it has no bearing whatsoever on my citizenship. So, to the point of not using labels for people, I am not a ‘something-Canadian’ nor is anyone else. We are all Canadians, end, period. There is no such thing as a ‘something- Canadian’. Think about it, who do you see in the mirror ?…yourself of course, and, if you are lucky, or have had the courage to come here and become one, a Canadian. One more thing...I do not like having our places of birth on our passports by default. We are citizens of Canada, a free and democratic country. If another country doesn’t want us to visit their country because of where we were born then we don’t want to go to that country.

9 Comments

Your place of origin does matter

Jun 9, 2020 at 2:53pm

If you're an infiltrator trained for usurpation by a hostile foreign government.

Sort of like

Jun 9, 2020 at 3:40pm

African American instead of just American.

A danac

Jun 9, 2020 at 4:30pm

Thank you! I was beginning to think I was the only one, who thinks this! Lest We Forget.

Proud of my heritage

Jun 9, 2020 at 4:47pm

Stop telling people how to live to your standards just to appease you. We all have the right to call ourselves whatever we wish. That's the point of Canada.

Mmmk

Jun 9, 2020 at 5:20pm

Hahaha, ok Canada is a free and democratic country... If you're White, cis-gender, able bodied, heterosexual, etc etc etc... Let me guess, you're probably one or more of these... Who are you to tell people how to live their lives anyway!

Anonymous

Jun 9, 2020 at 5:48pm

You don't need another identifier because your ancestry is already the one that's taken as the norm? Sounds about white.

Absolutely!

Jun 9, 2020 at 6:05pm

I’m a senior too; born and raised right here in Vancouver. I’ve also thought that this tendency nowadays is more divisive than inclusive.

Different take on it

Jun 9, 2020 at 6:12pm

My original heritage means a lot to me, it brings me joy. I'm first generation Canadian with family from a Slavic country. It would be sad to lose that culture altogether, it's in my bones. I love my hyphenated identity. Of course I consider myself Canadian and I'm glad this is home, but I have no ancestors here. My history is elsewhere.
Also, it's a multicultural country, and I enjoy and appreciate everyone's unique backgrounds. I feel happy when I see the diversity of people we have, expressing and sharing their heritage through food, cultural celebrations, language, community and stories / voices.

Content of character, not colour of skin

Jun 10, 2020 at 2:43pm

MLK Jr would be blasted today for daring to have dreamt of a world where we would not be rated on our melanin levels.

As a Japanese Canadian of brownish hue, it is theoretically interesting to me where my grandparents fucked, and if that has anything to do with my need to eat rice at least four times a week.

But it doesn't make me want to, say, enslave the Chinese or capture and rape Korean girls. Nor do I feel the slightest guilt that my ancestors did these shitty things.

However, there is racism and then there is well-meaning social justice race consciousness, which is different in that the former costs you friends and a job, as it should, but the latter will get you upvotes on Twitter and the ability to rally the mob against ideological enemies.

God help us all.