Tues June 30: Owen Sound & Grey-Bruce News
News and updates involving Brightshores Health System, MPP Paul Vickers, Grey Bruce Public Health, Bruce Grey Child & Family Services, Grey County, Owen Sound Council, and more
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There’s red and white all over the blue condos at 1455 1st Avenue West this week, where residents have the building dressed up and ready for the long weekend. They’re in good company. Owen Sound knows how to celebrate Canada Day — down at the harbour, in the backyards, out over the bay when the fireworks start.
Tonight is the city’s inaugural Canada Day drone show at Kelso Beach, and you’ll find the big list of what’s happening in eight Grey-Bruce communities tomorrow in our event listings below.
It’s an easy place to feel lucky on the first of July. It's also a day that means different things to different people, and holds a good deal of harder history alongside the festivities.
So, as we have before, we're running the acknowledgment below with our Canada Day coverage, because both can be true at once — the celebration and the reckoning — and the day is big enough to hold them together.
As many mark Canada Day, we also acknowledge that we live and work on the Territory of the Anishinabek Nation: The People of the Three Fires known as Ojibway, Odawa, and Pottawatomie Nations.
We further give thanks to the Chippewas of Saugeen Unceded First Nation, and the Chippewas of Nawash Unceded First Nation, known collectively as the Saugeen Ojibway Nation, as the traditional keepers of this land.
We recognize and acknowledge the harm done to First Nations people by colonization and the government of Canada, and that this is not a time of celebration for all.
Over 150,000 Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their families to attend residential schools, where they were given new names, converted to Christianity against their will, and forbidden from speaking their native languages. This is not ancient history; the last of these schools closed in the 1990s.
This is not the only harm done, but one egregious example of it. First Nations people in Canada are disproportionately affected by our prison, policing, and child welfare systems, as well as violence of all kinds, even today.
As we collectively contemplate what it means to be Canadian this holiday, let’s take a balanced and thoughtful look, both back and ahead. This is a time not only for celebration but for acknowledging our many opportunities to do and be better.
That’s it for us until after the holiday. Unless there’s news you truly need to know before then, we’ll be back in your inbox on Thursday morning.
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Public Notices
GBPH seeking public’s assistance as part of two separate dog bite investigations - Grey Bruce Public Health
Canada Day Facility Hours and Cooling Centre Information in Owen Sound - City of Owen Sound
Municipality of Meaford Invites Residents to Share Their Stories for 25th Anniversary Documentary - Read more
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Miranda Miller
Editor
Local News
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