Cancel Canada Day
Channel: John Sakars
Date: 01/07/2021

Important! Please sign. This is an official petition to have all residential school grounds searched for bodies.
https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-3484&fbclid=IwAR3AIaLg0Dyc-HhoWuTtQDIZjNYTehrVHu4JDD2Uk6aa3Bn8eEqf_QWwSR0



Celebrate Canada Day? Nope. 
When are we gonna hear from the pope? 
Speak out against what the church has done.
Reconciliation's gotta be number one.

Being "Canadian" gives me no pride. 
I won't celebrate Indigenous genocide. 
We gotta confront what's been done to people,
not hide from the truth under a steeple. 

I saw a sign that said, "Honk if you want churches gone." 
Yes. No more indoctrination. It's a brand new dawn. 
If you want to pray, you can do that anywhere. 
Feel free to walk in the forest and make a prayer. 

Why do people so quickly raise money for a church,
but for murdered children, there's no money for a search?
And Catholics are not the only people involved.
The government's crimes too, must not be absolved. 

Residential schools were government supported. 
They paid for Indigenous children to get transported. 
Children got abducted. From their families, they were taken. 
In residential schools, they were beaten and shaken.   

The government paid the church to kill,
and bend Indigenous children to their will.
They made them wear uniforms, and chopped off their hair. 
The children felt sad, but the priests did not care. 

By losing their hair, children felt they'd lost part of their spirit.
They were scared. That's the truth, regardless if you wanna hear it. 
Created to get Indigenous cultures destroyed, 
residential schools got all kinds of evil employed.

The schools were intentionally located far away
from Indigenous communities, to their dismay.
Contact was kept minimized between families and their kids. 
On their emotions, people were told to keep tight lids. 

Ancestral languages, they were not allowed to speak.
No Indigenous words permitted, not even a squeak. 
The children were forced to speak only English or French.
Canadian culture, colonizers were determined to intrench.

And why are they called "residential schools"? 
People see through that language. We are not fools. 
It's more accurate to call them concentration camps. 
Oh what horrors aren't depicted on Canadian stamps. 

Indigenous people got abused, and they suffer to this day. 
Post-traumatic stress does not simply go away. 
Alcoholism, substance abuse, and suicide, 
persist today. That's something we must not hide.

Residential schools were not run by me, 
but I have an obligation to be an ally to Cree,
and all the other people on Turtle Island,
from coast to coast. From the valley to the high land.  

My ancestors built a system of oppression 
that has harmed many people and caused depression. 
I hate this evil system with all my heart. 
We need a system change. A brand new start.

Capitalism ain't sustainable. This system must end. 
On our dear Mother Earth, we all depend. 
Indigenous people have lived sustainably for thousands of years. 
We have a lot to learn from them, so let's open our ears. 

Celebrate Canada Day? No thank you. I won't. 
Feel proud to be Canadian? I certainly don't.
End the system colonizers built? Yes, please. 
We need total liberation. Nothing less will appease. 

Nationalism is divisive, and religion is, too.
I know that life is hard, but we can push on through,
and make a world where all beings have all their needs met. 
We are all in this together, let's not forget.