After two years of cancellations, Canada Day celebrations are returning to downtown Victoria on Friday at a new location — the Inner Harbour’s Ship Point — and will kick off at noon with a traditional canoe protocol.
In the ceremony, Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps and other city officials will paddle across the Inner Harbour before asking to come ashore at Ship Point, where there will be a welcoming ceremony and performance by the Lekwungen Traditional Dancers on the main stage.
Helps said the Canada Day planning committee wanted to honour local First Nations this year and create new traditions.
“We thought, we can’t just go back to doing the same things that we were doing in the past in what I think of as a new era of reconciliation as a country.”
Helps said the shift from the B.C. legislature grounds to Ship Point also eased the planning process, since the new venue is on city-owned land. The city is borrowing materials from the Victoria Ska & Reggae Festival, which already has a stage and fencing in the area for its festival, which ended Sunday.
Starting at noon Friday, the harbour will be filled with artisans, performers and buskers, as well as activities, exhibits and food vendors.
The main stage will feature Indigenous and multicultural music and dance, while a bouncy castle, face painting, clown performances and other activities are planned for the children’s zone. The day will end with fireworks over the Inner Harbour at 10:20 p.m.
A full schedule of the day’s events for the almost entirely sponsor-funded celebration can be found online at canadadayvictoria.ca.
Residents in the area near Bullen Park are being cautioned that a 21-gun-salute is set for Friday from 1 p.m. to 1:15 p.m. People in the area may hear gunshots at that time.
Last year, city council cancelled Victoria’s virtual Canada Day celebration after remains of at least 200 Indigenous children were discovered at the site of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School by Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation.
“I think last summer was a real awakening for many people, about the complex history of our country and the painful history of our country,” said Helps.
Helps said this year’s Canada Day ceremony, which will start with a moment of silence, offers opportunities for both reflection and celebration.
“Canada Day is now in this new era of reconciliation,” she said. “It’s not one thing or the other. It’s [about] how we hold these complex truths together.”
Other Canada Day events in the capital region include Sidney’s two-day celebration, which starts today with live music and fireworks at 7:30 p.m.
On Friday, the Sidney Lions host a pancake breakfast at the Mary Winspear Centre before the Canada Day Parade down Beacon Avenue and Family Fun Fair at Iroquois Park.
The City of Langford is hosting its first ever Canada Day event Friday at Starlight Stadium.
The all-day event includes a pancake breakfast, live music, a concession and beer garden, kids activities and demonstrations by West Shore RCMP and Langford Fire Rescue.
The day will end at 9 p.m. with an outdoor movie.
