Canada Day

City marks Canada Day with festive walk to Old Port

Local Journalism Initiative / / / ,

By Dan Laxer
The Suburban

There was no parade to be rained on, this year. As reported in The Suburban, for the second year in a row, the traditional Canada Day Parade was cancelled at the last minute. But the City of Montreal did indeed mark the day’s activities in the Old Port.

The threatened rain and thunder storms made no appearance. In fact, despite weather forecasts, Canada Day in Montreal turned out to be a hot, bright, sunny day with just a few clouds. Either way, the day was advertised as taking place “rain or shine.” And Montrealers showed up in droves.

City of Montreal celebrations were centred in the Old Port, but began with the first ever “Festive Walk.” The nearly one-and-a-half kilometre walk had hundreds of participants. It was led by the Urban Science Brass Band – from Place d’Armes across from the Notre Dame Basilica through the streets of Old Montreal, and on to the Quai de l’Horloge where three Canadian Armed Forces cannons performed a 21-gun salute; each cannon fired off individual rounds in turn, which took about 45 minutes to complete.

Activities were much the same as in communities all over the island, with face-painting, inflatables, and games, and the citizenship ceremony for new Canadians.

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Quebecers celebrate a damp 158th Canada Day

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , ,

Quebecers celebrate a damp 158th Canada Day 

Cassandra Kerwin, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

cassandra@qctonline.com

From coast to coast to coast, Canadians celebrated the 158th anniversary of Confederation on July 1. In Quebec City, Mother Nature joined the fun by dropping more rain on Canada Day festivities. The ceremonial flag raising on Dufferin Terrace was cancelled, but crowds of people lined up in the rain to get their slice of Canada’s birthday cake prepared by the chefs of the Château Frontenac.

For almost an hour before the cake was served, people lined up outside and watched through large windows as the final touches of icing were applied.

Sticking to the schedule, at noon, some 2,000 pieces of the huge traditional cake, decorated to resemble the Canadian flag, were distributed from a side door of the hotel near the Champlain monument.

Regulars at the annual party tasted something different. Did the chefs dare change the recipe? Besides the usual 600 eggs, 360 egg whites, 11 pounds of white sugar, 50 pounds of flour and 90 pounds of butter, the head pastry chef added apple sauce to moisten the cake and used Quebec-made flour to make it more authentically Canadian. The result was delicious!

Slices of cake were served from under a tent by Jean-Yves Duclos, MP for Québec Centre; Lt.-Gov. Manon Jeannotte; Quebec City councillor David Weiser; and the director general of the Château Frontenac, Jean-François Vary.

While waiting for their cake, people waved their small Canadian flags. “I love coming to this event. I never miss it,” said Kasandra Pelletier. “I always meet people I know and haven’t seen in a year. Canada is a wonderful and welcoming country. I am so happy my grandparents chose to move here from Greece.”

On the Plains of Abraham, the National Battlefields Commission hosted an afternoon of family-friendly festivities. In the World Zone, families discovered various cultures that make up Canada’s multi- cultural society at the numerous booths, such as making bubbles at the SOIT (Service d’orientation et d’intégration des immigrants au travail) booth, traditional West African drums at the Djembé Québec booth or tasting tea while learning about Quebec’s English-speaking community at the Morrin Centre tent.

Children had their faces painted by the Kromatik Make-up before jumping around on the numerous bouncy castles. Parents had to keep a watchful eye due to the rainy weather making things more slippery. People were captivated by five performing acts on the nearby stage. Dragon and Drum, Kumquatz and the Old Men and the Sea roamed the site giving one-on-one performances. People stopped by the Trivia Canada table and photobooth for memorable experiences.

The sky finally cleared and the sun shone briefly over Quebec City before it set, just in time for the grand finale of the Canada Day celebrations. At 8 p.m., the duo Maxime Landry and Annie Blanchard gave a Western-style show at the Edwin Bélanger bandstand – The Country of Our Idols. They had the crowd line dancing in cowboy boots and hats to the tunes of the Daraîche Family, Patrick Norman and Renée Martel. The celebrations and the show ended with the Boréalis immersive laser show.

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Local Canada Day goes green

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , , , ,

By Kendall Knowlton

Wakefield will be super green for Canada Day this year. 

No fireworks. No drones lighting up the sky. No water bottles, no balloons, streamers or plastics, and every single dish, utensil and cup that revellers use will be fully compostable. 

“We’ve just been taking steps to be greener every year,” said Carly Woods, who organizes Canada Day every year at the Wakefield Recreation Association (WRA).

“We’ve shied away from the fireworks for environmental reasons,” said Woods. She said that removing the fireworks was partially due to complaints about people’s pets being afraid of them. There were no fireworks last year either, and Woods said the increased costs of drone shows has made it difficult for organizers to fit the aerial light show into their annual budget.

WRA’s budget changes from year to year but is estimated to be about $20,000 this year, according to Woods. 

Fireworks are wrapped with metal such as lithium and copper, and they can contain chemicals that contaminate the earth, according to Gwen O’Sullivan, an assistant professor of Environmental Science at Mount Royal University. He told CBC News in 2019 that the metals and chemicals are released when the fireworks explode to make colours like blue and red, and they can be toxic to animals and humans.

Wakefield has followed other regions, like Canmore, B.C., in banning firework shows for environmental reasons.

For those who do want to enjoy fireworks, both Chelsea and Low will be having displays. 

Woods also noted that all of the decorations will be environmentally friendly this year. 

“We are making our decorations and reusing them every year,” she said, explaining that the summer camp run by the Wakefield Activities for Youth (WAY) will have kids make decorations out of recycled materials for Canada Day. 

Dishes provided for the festivities will all be compostable, and there will be compost bins throughout the area. A group of people will be collecting all of the cans the day after. There will be no water bottles for sale – guests are asked to bring their own to refill.

“We’ve always been green, or as much as we can,” said Woods, “We are Wakefielders.”

As for the day of celebration, this year’s theme is Canada Strong.

The parade will leave from Centre Vorlage between 11:30 a.m. and 12 p.m. Festivities will take place throughout the rest of the day at the Wakefield community centre, where there will be kid-friendly activities, like bouncy castles, face painting and dunk tanks. 

And music. Local bands, such as The Jakes, will be playing at the community centre. A full lineup is coming soon.

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