August Civic Holiday (first Monday in Aug

Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
Apr 9, 2008
22,737
7,718
113
Regina, Saskatchewan
It's called Regatta Day in Newfoundland, Terry Fox Day in MB, Saskatchewan Day in SK, British Columbia Day in BC, Natal Day in Nova Scotia and PEI, Simcoe Day in Toronto, New Brunswick Day in New Brunswick, Colonel By Day in Ottawa, Heritage Day in Alberta and Joseph Brant Day in Burlington, ON. It is called Benjamin Vaughan day in the City of Vaughan, Ontario.

Civic Holiday is not called "Simcoe Day" everywhere in Ontario, only in Toronto. Each municipality that opts to declar the holiday can give it a unique name. It's called the "civic" holiday because it's the holiday that cities have authority to declare.

In Canada, the first Monday in August is a holiday in all provinces except for Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario and Yukon.

Often referred to as the 'August Long Weekend', the holiday is officially and unofficially known by different names in different regions.

Civic Day is a public holiday that is not based on any particular historical or religious event. The intent of the Civic Holiday seems simply to be to "not work". Now hold that thought….’cuz this Holiday can & will get co-opted for any number of political twists & flavours of the day….

More than a year after Canada (= Guess Whom?) proclaimed Aug. 1 as Emancipation Day, Black leaders and scholars are renewing their calls for Ottawa to make a formal apology for the country’s history of slavery and its intergenerational harms.

Emancipation Day recognizes the day in 1834 that the Slavery Abolition Act came into force, thus ending slavery in most British colonies including Canada, and freeing over 800,000 people. Thousands of slaves from Africa were brought against their will to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland, as well as to Lower Canada and Upper Canada, which is now Ontario.

(The British Parliament passed the British North America Act in 1867. The Dominion of Canada was officially born on July 1, 1867. Until 1982, July 1 was celebrated as “Dominion Day” to commemorate the day that Canada became a self-governing Dominion. Today it is officially known as Canada Day.)

The Slavery Abolition Act freed all enslaved people, including Indigenous people, Harding-Davis said, adding: “A determination to free Black people helped free all people, and that’s huge.”

Most Canadians are even aware of the country’s (before it was a country) history of slavery.

Some will argue that an apology isn’t warranted since Canada was formed in 1867, more than three decades after slavery ended. But Cooper said that reasoning doesn’t hold up, adding that the country formed in 1867 was built from what it was in the years before.

(There’s a Trudeau apology in the works I’m sure ‘cuz it’s far enough from anything that can be pointed at Trudeau himself so that he’ll jump at the opportunity to apologize for this!!)
 
  • Like
Reactions: taxslave

taxslave

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 25, 2008
36,362
4,336
113
Vancouver Island
Many union contracts dictate a 4 day weekend. We get 4 of them a year. Without finding an old contract to look up, I believe they are Easter, Aug 1, Labour Day, and Christmas. Double bubble days if you work in camp. Although I have known some people to take labour day off even in camp, which makes no sense to me.