The virtual Canada Day events will start with Indigenous drumming at noon on July 1. Over nine hours of events will be available online through Facebook live and YouTube. (P.A. Multicultural Council)

By Glenn Hicks

celebration and remembrance

Canada Day events go virtual for second straight year

Jun 19, 2021 | 4:00 PM

Despite improvements in the COVID-19 situation and hopes for a lifting of restrictions on July 11, that won’t happen quickly enough for Canada Day.

For the second year in-a-row there will be no organized celebrations at Prince Albert’s Kinsmen Park. However, over nine hours of colourful, fun and sometimes somber virtual events are planned on Facebook live and YouTube.

“We prefer to see the positive in the virtual celebrations,” Prince Albert Multicultural Council executive director Michelle Hassler told paNOW when reflecting on another Canada Day that has to be online. She will be the main live host.

Extensive line-up of virtual events

“Going online makes the celebrations accessible across a much wider audience wherever they are,” she said. “They can be sitting in their backyard being safe at home or having a picnic and watch on their smart phones or digital devices.”

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Hassler noted there are many people who can’t physically get to the park – for health reasons for example – so they can watch on a TV monitor or digital device.

She explained the entire online offering has been designed just like a regular Canada Day event at the park and will be a hybrid of live and pre-recorded content.

Somber reflection as well as celebration

An Elder will officially open things at noon on July 1 and there will be a drumming group. Organizers said the opening ceremony will be ‘in honour of the 215 children [whose remains were found in B.C. last month] and all the victims and survivors of Residential Schools.’

The afternoon and evening will be filled with performances; a virtual fireworks display will wrap things up at around 9:30 p.m. There will also be a reconciliation and healing event hosted by the Prince Albert Grand Council.

Canada Day program. (P.A. Multicultural Council)

Hassler hopes viewers can embrace the day as if it was actually at the park.

“It’ll be a come and go event for sure… last year some people had their TV on around the BBQ and watched things all day long. That would be nice if that happens.”

Legion’s fish fry runs once more

For P.A. Legion zone commander Brenda Cripps, the cancellation for a second year is a disappointment.

“It’s such a nice day up there in the park,” Cripps said. “Families come and they can bring their own lunch and listen to entertainment, so it’s disappointing they can’t do that.”

The very popular drive-thru Legion Fish Fry on Canada Day last year. (Ian Gustafson/paNOW Staff)

However, the Legion will still be out in the community with a culinary offering. They’ll have their drive-thru and walk-thru Fish Fry at their site, as they did last year. Funds raised go to the Legion.

Fish Fry poster 2021 (submitted /Legion #2)

“It was very popular [last year] and people had no trouble waiting in the line-up for three hours and said they’d do it again,” Cripps said.

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glenn.hicks@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @princealbertnow