Last week was the commemoration of the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, where Canadians are supposed to reflect on the legacy of the Indian Residential School system. Across Canada, there were flag raising ceremonies, words spoken, and in schools – students learned more about this part of Canadian history that was purposely left untaught for many decades. There was a problem with the day though, it was a statutory holiday for some.
September 30 was ruled a statutory holiday for federal government workers. Many banks were closed, the post office was closed, and even some municipalities gave their staff a day off. It is ironic – and inappropriate – to see federal government workers receive a day off to commemorate the historic atrocities committed by the federal government. It feels morbid to have anyone receive a paid day off work because the government partnered with most of the country’s Christian-based faiths to try culturally eradicate Indigenous people through the Indian Residential School System from 1874 to 1996.
Days that commemorate historical things like the Indian Residential School System should not be holidays. Holidays are for celebrations. We celebrate Christmas, Thanksgiving, and New Year’s Day. We should get the day off for happy occasions. We shouldn’t get something positive like a day off work to commemorate something negative.
Years ago, people argued that November 11 should be a statutory holiday so that everyone can go to a cenotaph for Remembrance Day. Some argued that if students were not in school on that day, they may not learn about why we have a Remembrance Day.
Not everyone gets to have their special days or commemoration days off – regardless of if they are religious, cultural, or commemorative. While Canada was founded in the historical Judeo-Christian template with Christian holidays celebrated, the Canada of 1867 is not the Canada of 2024. Despite certain rhetoric that lightning wielding political leaders espouse, Canada is a multicultural country made up of many ethnicities. These cultural groups have come to Canada and – unlike the melting pot of the United States – are encouraged to keep and celebrate their own cultures. In their home countries, days that would be celebrated or commemorated, are not here.
It does not make sense for someone who is of the Jewish, Hindu, or Muslim faith to have Christian holidays off – but then have to use personal time or their own annual holidays to celebrate what is important to their culture.
In Canada, there are five nationally-recognized statutory holidays. The federal government observes six other days for federal workers, Ontario observes four other days for provincially regulated workers. Those numbers vary from province-to-province, and are also different in the territories. Averaging the numbers across the country, it works out to 10 stat holidays annually.
While it would be great to have all the holidays as stat holidays, perhaps the better thing to do is allow everyone to observe the holidays important to them.
Instead of forcing everyone to follow the same calendar of days off, we could allow everyone 10 days per year to use as statutory holidays – and the people would get to choose what days they want to observe. Those who wish to continue with traditional holidays could, but a Vietnamese-Canadian family could have T?t, the Lunar New Year, as a paid day off instead of January 1. Jews could celebrate Yom Kippur as a stat holiday, and Muslims could have Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, the two holiest days in their faith, as paid days off.
Under this flexible statutory holiday idea, if you wanted to take Remembrance Day or the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation off as statutory holidays, you could. For those who like pirates, the International Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19) could be your statutory holiday too. And Seinfeld fans could claim Festivus (December 23) as a holiday as well. It may sound facetious to suggest that some people could choose to take May 4 off as a statutory holiday to celebrate their fandom of all things Star Wars, those days off are their days off, and they should be able to use them as they wish.
The days off a person or family chooses to celebrate are not for anyone else to judge or decide if they are legitimate.
The economy and civilization itself will not grind to a halt because some workers may take different days off than others. In fact, allowing that choice may just make employees a little happier.
This column was originally published in the October 9, 2024 print edition of the Morrisburg Leader.
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