The city government of Victoria, British Columbia, announced the city will not commemorate Canada Day. The provincial capital is the center of a metropolitan area of over 350,000 people. Canada Day commemorates Canada becoming an autonomous country within the British Empire on July 1, 1867.

The decision came after the discovery of the unmarked graves of 215 children in northern British Columbia. The graves are located on the premises of a former residential school. Victoria’s government claims celebrating Canada’s founding would insult First Nations (“Indians”).

“The history of our country’s genocidal relationship with First Nations has been once again revealed in a way that is painful for the Lekwungen people as well as First Nations across the country,” wrote Victoria’s mayor, Lisa Helps. Mayor Helps also refused to give the traditional oath of loyalty to Queen Elizabeth ii on her inauguration. She said doing so would disrespect First Nations’ land rights.

Victoria hadn’t planned any physical celebrations because of covid-19 restrictions, but it was planning to host virtual events. Now, the city will sponsor an hourlong broadcast about the residential school systems and the role of John A. Macdonald, Canada’s first prime minister, in founding them.

Macdonald was prime minister from 1867 to 1873 and again from 1878 to 1891. For part of that time, his parliamentary seat was in Victoria. He built Canada up from being four small British colonies in eastern North America to a British dominion that stretched from the Atlantic to Pacific to Arctic oceans. He was largely responsible for founding Canada as a free, prosperous, liberal democracy.

Mayor Helps took down a statue of Macdonald from Victoria City hall in 2018.

The 2015 final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the government inquiry into the residential school system, is where the genocide allegations come from. The final report calls Canada guilty of “cultural genocide.”

Residential schools were government funded and church operated. Their purpose was to assimilate First Nations youth into European Canadian culture and society. Many were in remote locations away from prying eyes. Because of this, and other reasons, school staff got away with mass physical and sexual abuse.

But that’s not where the allegations of genocide come from. They come from the desire to assimilate First Nations from their traditional culture to the settler culture. Using that logic, about every civilization on the planet is guilty of genocide. Most other countries aren’t boycotting their national holidays for that. Cultural assimilation would have happened with or without the brutal residential schools.

Calling European colonization of Canada “genocide” equates Canada’s founding to the Holocaust. This equates Sir John A. Macdonald with Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. As the Trumpet has covered, residential schools are a dark stain in Canadian history. The discovery of the unmarked graves of 215 children is a tragedy. And residential schools are not the only problems First Nations and colonists have had in Canada’s history. But this shouldn’t be an excuse to boycott the founding of the country.

British colonialism wasn’t perfect. Many First Nations agreed to live under British authority through treaties. Many had their land taken from them without a treaty. But while the British were signing treaties, other European empires treated their subjects far worse. The Spanish were literally enslaving the indigenous populations under their control. In the late 19th century, the Belgians were enslaving the Congolese. Portugal became the biggest market for the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The British—and the French before them—treated Canada’s First Nations far better than other empires did their subject peoples.

Of course, there was racism and interethnic abuse in the early days of Canadian history. No amount of patriotism can make that right. But the country Macdonald founded became a country of great opportunity for First Nations. It became a country where First Nations could become a provincial premier or a federal cabinet member. It became a country where First Nations could go to higher education, earn a good job, raise a family, and make a successful life. It became a country where First Nations served on the battlefields of World War ii to fight against a regime actually guilty of genocide.

And, yes, it became a country with a foundation of infrastructure, technology, education and political thought much more advanced than what was in Canada before colonization. First Nations benefited from the introduction of that society.

A provincial capital shunning that foundation shows how far removed modern Canada has gotten from its heritage.

Canadians shouldn’t be sorry that their country ever existed; they should be proud of it.

But there is a lot more to Canadian history than many realize.

Late educator and theologian Herbert W. Armstrong proved in his landmark book The United States and Britain in Prophecy that the English-speaking peoples are descended from the ancient Israelites. The British peoples (including Canadians) specifically descend from the Israelite tribe of Ephraim. Genesis 48:19 reads: “[H]e [Manasseh] shall also be great: but truly his younger brother [Ephraim] shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations.” Genesis 35:11 describes Ephraim as a “company of nations.”

This prophecy was fulfilled when the British Empire became the British Commonwealth, including nations such as the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

Boycotting Canada’s national day is an attack on more than just Canadian heritage. Canada’s existence is a direct fulfillment of these prophecies in Genesis. Boycotting Canada Day is an attack on the fulfillment of this prophecy. Claiming that Canada was founded on genocide is an attack on God. It is, as 2 Kings 14:27 states, an attempt to “blot out the name of Israel from under heaven.”

Canada is under attack.

But do people really know who is ultimately responsible? It doesn’t stop with the woke mayor of one city.

“An event occurred in 1986 that marked a major turning point in history,” writes Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry in his free booklet America Under Attack. “It has radically altered everything that has happened since: culture, family, education, religion, science, finance, politics, international relations—everything we do.”

Mr. Flurry continues: “This force is mysterious. It is a spirit that prevails in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Jewish state in the Middle East. But the main focus is America—because this evil force knows where the real power is. By bringing down the world’s number one superpower, it can bring down the others as well.”

Find out what this force is by requesting a free copy of America Under Attack. Although its main focus is America, the same principles apply to Canada. Also request a free copy of The United States and Britain in Prophecy to learn more about Canada’s biblical heritage.

Correction: The unmarked graves discovered in northern British Columbia were originally reported as one mass grave. It has since been clarified that the 215 children were not buried in one mass grave.