Thank you for this excellent piece that touches on some of the problems I have with the calls to 'cancel' Canada Day.
Besides the problem of binary thinking you describe, the issue I have is that the idea of 'canceling' Canada Day implies we have no right to take pride in our family histories, our communities, our sense of togetherness. As you allude to, this is what most people are actually celebrating on Canada Day. Are all those things morally tainted because of the darker history you allude to?
I've called myself 'patriotic, but not uncritically so'. On my own Medium page, I've written about everything from all the times Canada's failed to live up to its rhetoric to how far away we are from true reconciliation, even as I also write about the things we can be proud of. Criticism can come from love and wanting to make things right so the thing you love becomes further worth celebrating.