By Shane Koyczan

Every year around May, I start to get inundated with requests to perform "We Are More" for Canada Day. When I originally performed it for the Olympics I felt comfortable because we had not yet strayed so far down this dark path we now find ourselves on. Also the opportunity to perform on a world stage was just too huge to pass up. The problem I have now is that I can't firmly stand behind the poem saying things like "We are an experiment going right for a change." The awful truth is that our cultural identity is undergoing radical plastic surgery, and I'm not sure what country I'm looking at anymore. A country that labels Canadians as second class citizens. A country that kills its research and gags its scientists. A country that refuses to take a serious look into missing aboriginals despite being the same country that killed First Nations children in residential schools... was this nations first attempt at genocide not enough? It's a ridiculous world we live in where we are born within a set of imaginary lines, and that life within those borders is then what defines us to everyone else living inside a different set of imaginary lines. I feel very fortunate to have been born Canadian, but to truly call myself one requires that I participate in making the country a good place. The Canada we have now is run by criminals and big business. Politicians who have the power to vote up their own salaries. Parties who cut social programs, but spend millions of tax dollars on partisan ads trying to convince us that they're doing a good job. We are not "going right for a change"... we are going terribly wrong. I can't participate by offering a poem that suggests everything is okay... it isn't. I will participate by saying that we can do better, and that the standards we place on those we elect need to be elevated. A poem and some fireworks won't fix what's wrong with our country. By all means, spend time with your friends and family. Enjoy the festivities and be proud, but please remember that we have work to do... change does not manifest without our participation. My Canada Day will be at the next election.  

Written July 1, 2015 - Canada Day, 2015.