From The Mayor's Desk:

Doug Lawrance, Mayor, Sioux Lookout

Canada Day July 2021

Canada Day is celebrated annually on July 1st.  This year many Canadians are choosing not to celebrate.  

The mournful revelation of the remains of hundreds of Indigenous children buried in unmarked graves at former Indian Residential School sites seems to have taken our collective breath away.  The growing realization that across the country there are other such realities yet to be revealed has put a dark cloud over Canada Day celebrations.

The nation – not only our governments and leaders, but all of us – must put our attention to listening, to learning, and to raising our awareness.  We must do all we can to redress the historic and on-going damage Canada has done to the Indigenous people of this land.  The recent news has perhaps created a national mood that can be a catalyst for significant and meaningful change.

While we recognize that there is much work to do to become the kind of country – become the Canadians – that we aspire to be, there is also much we can celebrate about Canada.   This is the country where we want to live and we are proud to call home.  Both Canada and our community, Sioux Lookout, are growing and diverse.   We celebrate and benefit from our diversity.  

And we still have so much potential.  

Let’s listen and learn about the history of Canada and all Canadians – new Canadians, long time Canadians, and especially those Canadians who are indigenous to this land.  

So let us celebrate as Canadians, as Sioux Lookouters, and commit to working together to make Canada Day a day for all to celebrate - all of us who live here, in Sioux Lookout, on the traditional territory of the Lac Seul First Nation in the area of Treaty Three. And let’s respect those who choose not to celebrate today.