Canadian Heritage announced that they would not allow Canadians to participate in the annual Canada Day celebration at Parliament Hill due to construction after two years of cancelling it due to COVID.

According to Canadian Heritage, the Canada Day party, which usually sees thousands flock to Ottawa, is being moved to the LeBreton Flats approximately 1.5km Westwards.

In their announcement, they did not mention the Freedom Convoy protest, even though thousands participated in Canada Day-like celebrations for weeks. There was also ongoing construction at the time.

Nonetheless, Canadian Heritage said that there will be some unspecified activities allowed, with a list “coming soon.”

Last year, despite the ban on Canada Day celebrations, thousands of Indigenous and pro-Indigenous activists rallied at Parliament Hill to, ironically, protest Canada’s history in a “day of reflection.”

“It’s a day of reflection; it’s not a day of celebration,” Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation Chief Dylan Whiteduck told the crowd at Parliament Hill in 2021.

In response, right-wing political pundit and former candidate for the BC Liberals Aaron Gunn gathered supporters for an “Un-cancel Canada Day” party in BC and gave a patriotic speech to onlookers.

“And I’m tired of the narrative of this country, and of its story, being dragged through the mud and hijacked by a small group of political extremists,” he said.

So far, it doesn’t appear that there is a large group organizing a pro-Canada Canada Day celebration this year, even though the Freedom Convoy certainly set a patriotic tone.