For years now, Canada’s elite have been acting as if there is no real legitimate national interest.

By Christopher Dummitt| Published by The National Post

It’s possible to be both astounded and completely unsurprised by the allegations that some members of Parliament have colluded with foreign states to serve both their own interests and those of governments like China and India. Canadian progressives and many of our institutions have come to embrace a bizarre woke version of multiculturalism, where every other nation can have interests and culture, but Canada can only have original sin.

Summary

Practices such as land acknowledgments, confessions of genocide, and the downplaying of a distinct Canadian identity, as well as the reframing of historical narratives to focus on guilt rather than achievement is evidence of a trend to emphasize Canada’s historical wrongs to the exclusion of a positive national identity.

Historian Christopher Dummitt writes there is a tendency to prioritize Indigenous history and erase or diminish the contributions of other groups, such as the Group of Seven, in the name of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) goals.

A perceived double standard in focusing on Canada’s historical sins while overlooking the equally problematic histories of other nations and cultures, argues Dummitt, may contribute to a lack of a strong, positive national identity and could potentially be linked to the alleged collusion of some members of Parliament with foreign states.

Read the original, full-text version of this commentary at the publisher’s website here

Christopher Dummitt is a historian of Canadian culture and politics at Trent University and a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.