Canada Day is celebrated every year on July 1, marking the anniversary of the Constitution Act of 1867, which united the first provinces of Canada into one country. There are lots of celebrations in the country, with family and friends hosting parties and dinners in honor of the day.Recently, a video of a Canada Day celebration in Calgary has gained popularity on social media, sparking debate online. In the clip, a woman calling herself an ‘indigenous’ clashed with Indian volunteers distributing free food over littering in a public park.In the video posted on X and other platforms including Facebook, a woman named Veronica Lee tells a Sikh man at Prairie Winds Park that she came to the site to celebrate Canada Day with her daughters, but was disturbed by the trash strewn across the park. As the man said “You share your land with us”, Les replied, “We share our land. We don’t treat our land like this. Shame on you all,” before asking the people, mostly Sikhs and South Asians, to “pick up some trash.”Turning the camera towards the garbage heap in the park, the woman argued that one should not wait for the program to end before cleaning. “We don’t treat Canada like this,” Les said, urging everyone to bend over and pick up some trash.Les, visibly agitated by the scene, then took a plastic bag from a food stall and started collecting garbage with her daughters. “My girls and I attended the free Canada Day BBQ at Prairie Winds Park today. I think you all need to be advised of how this program is treating the land and we need to be more vocal on this issue!!! Please SHARE!!!” she wrote in a post on Facebook.
social media reactions
Les then took a plastic bag from a food stall and started collecting garbage with his daughters.
The clip quickly went viral online, and netizens blamed the organizers for creating a mess.One user wrote, “He is right, I am an Indian, we Indians need to behave with better civic sense.”“We should have ICE in Canada too,” added another.“He is 100% right, as immigrants it is our responsibility to learn and protect Canadian culture,” one user wrote.One suggested, “I think if they imposed a fine of $1000 per piece of litter people would stop littering. It works in Singapore.”
What actually happened?
The incident occurred during a Canada Day event hosted by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Calgary on July 1 at Prairie Winds Park. In a Facebook post on June 17, the community announced free BBQ and veggie burgers for everyone in the park on July 1. On that day, Guru Nanak Free Kitchen Calgary also set up a stall to give away free ice cream. After the confrontation circulated on social media, the non-profit organization clarified in a Facebook post that “the paper plates, napkins, cups and other food service items shown in the video were not from GNFK”.The post said it takes time to collect garbage after such large events and “volunteers from both the Guru Nanak Free Kitchen and the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community stayed after the event to help clean up the park”.Eventually, volunteers cleaned the spot and shared photos of it on Facebook. The organizers also claimed that Les was right in his concerns and invited him to their future events. Accepting the invitation, Les insisted that he had “nothing against the mission” and that it was “a better way to get involved within the community.”“For all those who assumed that he would not clean up, he kept his word. As he said from the beginning, he cleaned everything up after the incident. If you want to verify it yourself, check out the Facebook page “Guru Nanak Free Kitchen Calgary”. They posted photos and videos showing the entire area being cleaned up afterward. Let’s judge people based on facts, not assumptions,” wrote a netizen.