What a Canadian has to say about Keanu Reeves’ induction into Canada’s Walk of Fame

 What @pip0874 – a Canadian has to say about Keanu Reeves’ induction into Canada’s Walk of Fame:

@cwofame – please take note.

The awards presentation for Canada’s Walk of Fame is coming up on Dec. 17th and Keanu Reeves is an inductee this year in the category of Arts and Entertainment. For those of you who don’t know, Canada’s Walk of Fame is a non-profit organization that honours Canadians in five different areas. Anyone can nominate a candidate as long as they meet the criteria set out by the organization. A selection committee then reviews applications and makes the final decision. I can see where Reeves would be nominated because he’s a well known name in the entertainment industry and the criteria are general and vague enough that he qualifies. But I’m still surprised to see his name there because of all the candidates his name sticks out as the one person who doesn’t seem to have any emotional investment or history in Canada or in fact to know our country at all. He’s always struck me as having stronger roots in California than Canada

I have to admit that there is another reason I am hesitant to claim him as a candidate for Canadian praise and that is something that his girlfriend Alexandra Grant did that I found unconscionable. I have spoken of this before but I’ll repeat the story again. When the media first started reporting on Keanu and Alexandra Grant dating, Hello! Magazine wrote a piece on Alexandra Grant in November 2019 which quoted from her resume: “Her work has been exhibited in Canada. The Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto displayed a collection of Alexandra’s works, according to her resume. That’s heartwarming to Keanu’s fans, since Toronto is where he grew up.” A show, in fact wasn’t what she had listed on her CV, but that she had a piece of her artwork in the permanent collection at the AGO. When I checked and another person also verified this, I was told that there was no listing for any Alexandra Grant in either their permanent collection or having had an exhibit at the gallery.

This kind of cultural appropriation is very disrespectful to our own Canadian artists and arts communities and needs to be called out. Ms. Grant seems to not understand or care about the optics of using another country’s cultural institutions to build a false narrative about her accomplishments.
I find it difficult to believe that Keanu Reeves didn’t know about this lie and hypocrisy and maybe he didn’t condone it but he didn’t speak out against it. I’m not willing to give him any Canadian honour until I see a lot more honesty in his behaviour. I don’t think he’s earned Canadian’s respect.