On Patriotism

For so long we’ve lived with the impression that “those things don’t happen here”. Today, however, we were proven wrong. 

Canada has always seemed to me to be a country where the bad things that befall other nations don’t happen. We’re nice here. We accept people from elsewhere almost without question. We have a great reputation abroad (which I’ve experienced on a number of occasions) and we are so fortunate to be living here, whether by accident of birth or through immigration.

It’s a place where people come to escape the tyranny and terror they might have experienced in their home countries. Canada is a place where people, for the most part, enjoy more rights and freedoms than almost anywhere else in the world. It’s a place where we can feel safe walking down the street.

The incidents at the National War Memorial and inside the Centre Block of Parliament should serve as a reminder that we, as a nation, are vulnerable in ways we never thought we would be.

The National War Memorial in Ottawa is exposed to the elements, and stands as a reminder of the sacrifice made by 114, 457 servicemen and women since the outbreak of the First World War. Today, we can add one more to that total. Cpl Nathan Cirillo, of the Princess Louise’s Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada (out of Hamilton), was gunned down as he stood guard over the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Cpl Cirillo, a reservist, was a father and a volunteer in what may be the most honourable profession we have.

It’s always easy to default to the “well, you signed up for war so you shouldn’t be surprised if you get hurt” reaction when something like this happens. Doing so is not only reductive, but also harmful to judge the choices that people make, especially when we haven’t made those choices ourselves. At the end of it all, a young Canadian soldier is dead because he was doing his job, and we have very few answers. Instead, a city was put on lockdown, reporters held for hours to give statements, and a country was given notice that we are not immune any more.

It is also easy to focus on the negative, where we can’t see the good in anything and have to force ourselves to be less cynical about the world we now live in. All day, my heart was in my throat as I saw footage of my capital city – OUR capital city – under siege. The Parliament Buildings in Ottawa are perhaps our greatest political symbols, and to know that the sense of openness and welcoming atmosphere that I remember from my visits to the Hill were brutally assaulted makes me angry. And in my anger, I thought terrible things about the fate of our Prime Minister (among other politicians), for which I am ashamed.

The incident in Ottawa wasn’t as catastrophic as the attacks on 9/11, or at the Boston Marathon. But it was as, if not more, shocking. These kinds of things aren’t supposed to happen in Canada, and I spent a long time today thinking about why it happened. And I have no answers.

 

All I know is that in the coming days we need to be strong, as Ottawa needs to stay strong. It’s a beautiful city, where Canadians can come together and celebrate the things about Canada that we know and love and want to share with the world. It’s a place where some of the greatest symbols of our democracy can be seen, and where the most well-known landmark is called the Peace Tower.

Instead, I’ve been thinking about what it means to be patriotic. Which brings me to the overwhelming emotion I felt while watching the national anthem before the Oilers game tonight. I’ve never really felt a major emotional response to our national anthem, but tonight, as it was sung, I wept. I wept for my country and for the peace that had been shattered. I wept for my fellow Canadians, new and old, who hold our rights and freedoms dear and live with those values in their own hearts. I wept for the citizens of Ottawa, who were subjected to a terror not seen in a Canadian city in years. And I wept for the members of our armed forces, who enlisted to serve our country in whatever way possible knowing that at some point their lives might be in danger, but still going to work daily and doing their jobs so that we may do ours.

A simple thank you will never be enough.

I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss. I see the lives for which I lay down my life, peaceful, useful, prosperous and happy. I see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts, and in the hearts of their descendants, generations hence. It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known. – Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities)