False Flags

    Every once in a while I see a meme shared that purports to be a letter from Sir Wilfrid Laurier, who was Canada's 7th Prime Minister, urging that newcomers to Canada from all nations are welcome but they must become Canadian, dagnabbit! and learn to speak English or French and leave behind all them thar furriner customs that clash with our beer, hockey and Timbits. (It didn't actually reference these thing, but it was very much about assimilating to the Canadian way of life, whatever that is.) One version of this meme even came with a grainy black and white photo attached, showing a man apparently giving a speech in what looked like a campaign rail stop. 

    "Hmmm," I thought upon looking at the picture, "That looks nothing like Wilfrid Laurier. In fact, I think it looks like Teddy Roosevelt." So I googled a few key phrases from the letter, and sure enough, Laurier never wrote it: someone had taken the real letter, which had been written by Roosevelt, and just replaced all the references to the U.S. with Canadianized replacements ("English and French" in place of "English", etc.). Apparently it had been circulating enough to warrant a French news service debunking it here.

    It was at once both infuriating and hilarious. Infuriating because of the sheer dishonesty involved. There's no way this was an innocent mistake; whoever took that Roosevelt letter and altered it to present it as coming from Laurier knew perfectly well that they were fabricating a deliberate lie. What possibly could possess them to think this was an act of Canadian patriotism? If it was meant as a joke, though, it was hilarious, taking an expression of distinctly American nationalism and passing it off as Canadian patriotism by slapping on a few superficial (and false) Canadianisms. 

    I feel the same kind of insult whenever I see a vehicle drive by with a big Canadian flag waving, often supplemented with "F*CK TRUDEAU" or similar slogans. It's not that I think a true Canadian shouldn't criticize the Prime Minister. Rather, it's that I feel like my flag is being co-opted to stand for something that's not really Canadian, as if I won't notice a cheap "LET'S GO BRANDON" knock-off.