AMS post gets pushback after support for Cancel “Canada” Day movement.
On July 1, the AMS Instagram made a “Cancel Canada” Day post, complete with multiple slides of information about the Idle No More movement, a recognition of both Indigenous suffering and their land rights, how to be an ally, and more.
Idle No More is an Indigenous led social movement with various campaigns to raise awareness about Indigenous issues. One of which is Cancel “Canada” Day, a campaign meant to disrupt celebrations and bring attention to past injustices perpetrated against Indigenous people by the Canadian government, along with outlining the injustices ongoing today.
“While some mark ‘Canada Day’ with fireworks and festivities, we recognize the violent colonial history this date represents: genocide, land theft, broken agreements, and ongoing systemic harm toward Indigenous communities,” the AMS wrote in the Instagram caption. “We cannot celebrate nationhood without reckoning with its foundation. There is no pride in genocide.”
Replies in the post’s comments were mixed, with some in support and others critiquing. One commenter, Henry Jeong, ArtSci ‘19, elaborated on his thoughts in an interview with The Journal.
“I understand where the intentions are coming from, but at the same time, it’s one of difficult optics,” Jeong said. “To ‘cancel’ has a negative connotation. [Instead], how to make Canada Day better means we have things to work on, but it will get better.” Jeong later explained that, in his view, both reflecting and celebrating don’t have to be separate.
“There is no exclusion between the two of them. They can coexist, and they will build on one another. By celebrating, we’ll be able to reflect, and by reflecting, we’ll be able to celebrate. We’re actually in a very fortunate situation where we are able to do both,” Jeong said.
In an interview with The Journal, President Jana Amer responded to the concerns surrounding the messaging of the post, explaining specifically why they presented it as a ‘Cancel “Canada”
Day’ post.
“Cancel “Canada” Day is a campaign that has been led by Idle No More, which is an indigenous movement, which is kind of how the title came about to be and why it’s been that for the past couple of years when it comes to similar posts like this,” Amer said.
While the AMS had referred to this project in the past, including through the reposting of a Queen’s Shift Project post in 2023 and a Cancel Canada post in 2021, these were posted to the Social Issues Commission (SIC) Instagram. This post was the first of its kind on the AMS’s main Instagram.
In the same interview, Vice-President (University Affairs) Alyssa Perisa echoed Amers’ overall sentiment, while also explaining that the SIC’s research on the Idle No More campaign only encouraged the AMS to go forward with the post, explaining it tied back into the AMS’s mandate outlined in the AMS Constitution.
“In our background searching, we found that they [Idle No More] call on people for peaceful revolution to honor what Jana mentioned, Indigenous sovereignty, and we want to be a part of that because in the AMS mandate we want to uphold those principles of Indigenization and create an opportunity for students to learn and provide them with education regarding social issues,” Perisa said.
In response to the critique of being able to both celebrate and recognize Canada’s history, Amer explained that a main part of their job is to tell the untold stories, and this post was meant to present a different perspective of Canada Day amongst the usual celebratory posts on July 1.
“During Canada Day, we get to see so many posts celebrating and looking at the beauty of Canada and talking about why Canada is so awesome, we get to hear about that. Not a lot of people remember to recognize the flip side of it and that’s kind of where we were trying to also bring in some of that balance when it comes to having conversations around Canadian sovereignty,” Amer said.
Tags
AMS Instagram, Canada Day, Cancel Canada Day
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Anonymous
This still doesn’t explain why they deleted and blocked comments from students who criticized the Instagram post. If they genuinely represent the student body, they should be open to feedback, not silence the very people they claim to speak for.
Zedrick Serson
This is the same entity that used massive illegal street parties during Covid as an opportunity to advocate for defunding the police, so I’m not surprised that they would post more obviously dumb things.