Canada Day not a celebration for some communities in northern Ontario

Patsy Corbiere says her community won't be celebrating Canada Day.

Corbiere is Ogimaa-kwe, or chief, of Aundeck Omni Kaning First Nation on Manitoulin Island.

"We don't celebrate Canada Day. We've had our Aboriginal day on June 21. So that's the day that we celebrate our own heritage and culture," Corbiere told CBC News.

She said the discoveries of unmarked graves at former residential school sites across Canada have made it difficult for many of her community members to recognize Canada Day.

"We have to continue with that healing journey that we're on in regards to what happened in residential school, because we have lots of survivors too, on Manitoulin Island that still live those feelings," she said.

"And what happened to them hurt."

For Corbiere, Canada Day is a time people should reflect on the country's history of colonialism and think about truth and reconciliation.

"People should reflect on that day, even if it's just a simple thing that they do," she said.

But for others in northern Ontario, Canada Day takes on a different meaning.

A significant day for many newcomers

Gouled Hassan is a co-ordinator with Contact interculturel francophone de Sudbury, which helps francophone newcomers to the city integrate into the community.

He said that many of the people he works with see Canada Day as areflection of the independence days in their home countries.

"I'm from a country called Djibouti, and we're a French colony," he said.

"So on June 27, we celebrate our independence day. So it's a way of becoming a country of your own, and having everything under your own control, rather than a third party, which was at the time France."

But Hassan said a lot of newcomers to Canada also want to know more about the country's history, and especially about truth and reconciliation.

"So we already started some conversations where we had roundtables of three different communities, newcomers, the settlers and the First Nation communities, to see how we can share the land and the resources in a way that everybody feels being part of the community," he said.

"But what needs to be done is also have discussions with First Nations and see their struggle and see what happened to them before, you know, the newcomers came in."