Back to Search
This year’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on September 30 offers us as police leaders an opportunity to honour the children who never returned home and Survivors of residential schools, as well as their families and communities. Policing played a significant role in the painful past. It should play a role in a positive future for Indigenous communities and all Canadians when it comes to reconciliation.
Ontario police services will mark this important day in many different ways. Public commemorations of the tragic and painful history and ongoing impacts of residential schools play an important part in a vital component in the reconciliation process.
September 30 is also Orange Shirt Day, an Indigenous-led grassroots commemorative day intended to raise awareness of the individual, family, and community inter-generational impacts of residential schools, and to promote the concept of “Every Child Matters”. The orange shirt is a symbol of the stripping away of culture, freedom, and self-esteem experienced by Indigenous children over generations.
We encourage all OACP members to wear orange to honour the thousands of Survivors of residential schools.
Subscribe