This Ojibway bartender says closing for Canada Day should just be the beginning
Stephanie Sanders says she's proud her workplace is making 'a little bit of a self-sacrifice'
WARNING: This story contains distressing details.
Stephanie Sanders would ordinarily be bracing for a very busy Canada Day bartending at The Gilmour. But the Ottawa bar will be closed Thursday, out of respect for Indigenous communities.
Instead of a celebration, many Indigenous people are calling for a day of mourning, reckoning and solidarity following the preliminary findings of 215 children's remains at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, 751 unmarked graves on the grounds of the former Marieval Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan, and an estimated 182 unmarked burials near the former St. Eugene's Mission School near Cranbrook, B.C.
Support is available for anyone affected by their experience at residential schools and those who are triggered by the latest reports. A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line has been set up to provide support for former students and those affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour national crisis line: 1-866-925-4419.
"With everything that's going on, it's good to take a step back and maybe think twice about the idea and concept of Canada Day," the owner of The Gilmour, Matthew Tweedy, told the Ottawa Citizen.
The pub itself is a new business in downtown Ottawa. And with Ontario moving into Stage Two of its reopening Wednesday, Tweedy said they could have used the money they would have made on Canada Day.
Sanders is a member of the Curve Lake First Nation, and in addition to her part-time job at the bar, she's also a teacher. She spoke with As It Happens guest host Nil Köksal about Thursday's planned closure. Here's part of that conversation.
Stephanie, what message is The Gilmour hoping to send by keeping its doors closed tomorrow?
We're acknowledging that we don't want tomorrow to be a day of celebration, rather a day of reflection and acknowledgement of the tragedy that we are learning about today.
It was a really tough call for [the owner] to make, and I'm really proud to be a part of a business that's willing to make a little bit of a self-sacrifice.
Listen: Stephanie Sanders tells As It Happens about her workplace closing for Canada Day:
What are you hearing from other people? What do you think this Canada Day is going to be like?
The people that I've been serving this week have been really proud and on board ... I think it's going to be a different atmosphere, a different mood in the city tomorrow. And I'm really interested to see what exactly becomes of it.
The community of Ottawa is very open and understanding and respectful — and they're as upset about it as anyone really should be at this point.
It's also a significant day, this Canada Day, for you personally. I understand you just got your status card last week.
It was a very bittersweet moment for me when I received the news. I've been trying to get my status card for 11 years.
There [were] complications with information in my family tree. There were barriers with the legislation and who qualified and who didn't qualify for status.
My mom spent a lot of time over the last 10 years researching and finding more information on my family, getting the proper documentation and resubmitting applications and different paperwork…. It was a really difficult process.
Why was it so important for you to start that process — as difficult as it was — and finally get your card?
Well, my mom has hers [and] I felt that she had this connection to the Indigenous community that I just didn't have.
I've been always proud to say I'm an Indigenous woman. I just never understood exactly the weight of that and what that meant. And I always sort of felt that I couldn't quite claim that if I didn't have my status card.
But that's ironic because it's the government who is acknowledging my heritage, but it's the same government that was trying to destroy my heritage.
It's just such a conflict for me right now to finally get this piece of paper that I've been wanting my entire adult life and then have it coincide with the discovery of unmarked graves across Canada at this point.
How optimistic are you … that the conversation happening right across Canada — a long overdue conversation — may actually signal a bigger shift for this country?
I think that if change doesn't happen now, there will be a major uproar.
The biggest thing [was] that people ... just didn't know Canada. We did a great job at hiding our history. You know, the burden of history is very secretive, very hush, hush. They didn't start talking about it in school until the last 10 years.
When I was in school, we didn't talk about residential schools … and I'm teaching it to my students now. So I think that on top of newly educated youth, on top of the new discoveries that are being found … Canada has no choice but to fix the problem that they created.
When students get back to class in the fall … how are you going to broach this topic?
I'm going to approach it as genuinely as I can.
The only reason I can stand here proudly and say I'm an Indigenous woman is because of my predecessors and people who are strong enough to fight for our culture.
As much as it's important to acknowledge the history, that does not define Indigenous culture in Canada. That is a terrible tragedy that has happened. But I want to focus on how successful and how powerful and determined people in the Indigenous community are today, fighting for their equal rights, fighting for what they deserve.
And I'm going to really focus on teaching my students to understand the burden of history in order to make change for the future, because I think that's what's important now — that we as a country come together to make a change, because it doesn't happen overnight. It happens over generations.
Written by Mehek Mazhar. Produced by Chloe Shantz-Hilkes. Q&A edited for length and clarity.
