This column is an opinion by way of Michael A. Johnston, a legal professional based in Ottawa. For additional information about CBC’s Opinion segment, please see the FAQ.
The Canadian flag on Parliament Hill was flown at half-mast for the longest period in our history closing yr, to symbolically honour the Indigenous kids who suffered and died at residential colleges. however the flag is up once more, and it looks as if business as same old.
we will be able to do more than simply lower one image – we will amendment every other image to raised reflect our nation’s political and cultural ancestry.
In 1957, throughout the Suez quandary, the HMCS Brilliant arrived in the Port of Said, flying the similar White Ensign as a ship of Britain’s Royal Navy. The Egyptians, who relatively mistook it for the British Military, threatened to sink it. The send hauled down its colors, and disaster used to be averted.
In 1965, Canada reduced the Red Ensign/Crimson Duster, and raised its then-new Maple Leaf flag. Veterans who had fought, and had friends die beneath the Red Ensign at Vimy Ridge, at Normandy, and elsewhere, were unhappy with the brand new symbol. It was a break from tradition – and from Nice Britain. However the ones objections have been overruled by the real want to visibly distinguish ourselves as a nation and an autonomous voice in the international, become independent from England.
Canada is over again reckoning with our earlier, as it informs our present national identity, and brings a few of our symbols, institutions, and historical figures into question.
Canada’s “House of Commons” can be one such element of political and cultural reckoning.
A symbolic modification
As an institution, it has a rare title. aside from England, Canada is the only former Commonwealth united states of america that also employs the time period the “House of Commons” to describe its lower space. it’s time for a symbolic modification, one that reflects the country’s three founding cultures: Indigenous Countries, the French, and the English.
In England, the lower “Area of Commons” juxtaposes with the higher “Area of Lords.” At its inception, “commons” connoted the chamber the place representatives of the folks had been gathered, however that lower area was then subservient to both the monarch, and the nobility.
Canada doesn’t have a house of Lords, nor any Lords, as none had been appointed for the reason that Nickle resolution of 1919. (Conrad Black selected the British Queen over Canada whilst he renounced his Canadian citizenship to transform a British Lord in 2001.) if truth be told, our lower house is elected and our higher house is appointed – every now and then by what appears to be mere political patronage.
What Canada needs is a time period that makes it clear the elected will of the people is not in any way subsidiary to the Senate, the Privy Council, or the manager.
Discovering the most productive identify
now we have many options. Space of Representatives, the term utilized by the oldest Western democracy (the U.S.), is already hired by way of Australia, New Zealand and Jamaica, among others.
An Indigenous phrase might be employed as part of a real reconciliation procedure. after all, our u . s .’s name derives from the Huron-Iroquois word for settlement: kanata. Quebec derives its name from “kebec,” the Algonquin word for a slim passage within the river, and Ontario is derived from the Iroquois word “kanadario,” this means that glowing water.
In A Similar Way, in Ireland, the decrease home is referred to as “Dáil Éireann,” which means that “assembly of eire” and is the principal chamber of the Oireachtas, a Gaelic phrase for a deliberative assembly of freemen.
A dialogue is warranted to find the best title to shift us past our colonial earlier and better replicate the original cultural and political history of this land.
We populate a land that had an advanced political tradition prior to French and English colonization. The Six International Locations of the Iroquois Confederacy had a bicameral legislature, and their charter – the “Great Law of Peace” – stimulated the U.S. Constitution.
In this type of united states, the place the place democratic ideas are such a lot at factor (notwithstanding government fiats, cupboard confidences and birthday celebration discipline), requires a name more befitting the place where our elected representatives conglomerate, and debate. the current identify is a tragedy of the Commons.
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