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Winnipeg Free Press

Elbows up this Canada Day

Canadian pride and thoughts of reconciliation hung in the air Tuesday as musicians and dancers helped ring in Canada Day at The Forks. With U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war and threats of annexation still fresh in people's minds, the flags seemed to fly a little higher and the energy buzzed a little more as the country celebrated its 158th birthday. 'I've seen a lot of 'elbows up' today,' Paul Hartwick, visiting from Burlington, Ont., said. 'I can tell people are now a little more protective of Canada.' Hartwick, a Maple Leaf Foods employee, said he rarely noticed Canadian flags around his Ontario home until about six months ago, when Trump was sworn in. Now, he sees multiple flags flying full-time. He's not the only one to notice a change. 'It's definitely more celebratory that Canada is sovereign and unique,' said Norm Beltrame, a former investment planner. 'We have something to be proud of, it's way more pronounced.' Hartwick said Canadians have usually been quieter and a little unassuming when it comes to being patriotic, and that it's nice to see people showing more support for their country by attending events like these. 'Maybe we took everything for granted a bit, and now seeing some of the things the guy south is saying about taking us over and stuff, they're becoming a little more prideful and thankful for how this country is versus the U.S.' While Canada Day celebrations the past few years have been tempered by anger over the discovery of potential unmarked graves of Indigenous children at residential schools and the previous Tory government's steadfast refusal to search landfills for the remains of three of four victims of serial killer Jeremy Skibicki, that anger seems to be softening. Or at least redirected into a path forward to reconciliation. The Forks has celebrated Indigenous Peoples from all different backgrounds for 11 days straight as part of its 'Many Nations, One Heartbeat' theme for 2025, which began on National Indigenous Peoples Day, June 21. Sarah Greco, a musician who was on the fence about performing on Canada Day at The Forks, recognizes it's a step in the right direction, but thinks more still needs to be done. She also pointed to education being the key and credited former Canadian senator and Indigenous advocate Murray Sinclair. 'Education got us into this mess, and that's what's going to get us out,' said Greco, a singer in the 'Sassy Mellows' band. 'Learning more about history and educating myself has really made me realize that there's a lot more that was hidden from us and we didn't know, so I'm just trying to advocate for that as best as I can in certain ways.' Greco is Métis, Cree, and Blackfoot and said she knows people who've been to residential schools. She uses entertainment and music as a platform to help spread the word about what Indigenous Peoples have suffered through in their past and are still experiencing now. 'It starts at home. If you can start with yourself and then maybe work outside of your community and offer help where you can, we will start seeing less division in the community,' she said. 'What we all need is community. We need people to come together and to progressively try and move forward.' Jerry Tom, an Indigenous man, almost didn't come. 'I had some mixed feelings about being here,' said Tom, 62, outside of The Forks Market. 'It's tricky because of what Canada has done to the Indigenous peoples with residential schools.' Tuesdays A weekly look at politics close to home and around the world. Tom believes the country should put more of its attention on reconciliation. He referenced the unmarked grave sites discovered at a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C., a few years ago and hopes that educating others will help create a more unified country. 'These issues are difficult to discuss, but they need to happen,' Tom said. 'It's a matter of education to make things better for everybody down the road.' Tom said he still hears racist comments from people and remembered the time someone referred to him as a 'dirty Indian' while walking down the city's streets. 'In those moments I always think, 'I feel sorry for your kids because you will pass that behaviour on to your children,'' he said.