We know that the month of September holds special significance for those of us in the labour movement. It marks many things – Labour Day, a return to likely much more hectic work schedules, and of course millions of children around the country begin another year of school.
In 2008 at a Statement Gathering of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Commissioner Dr. Marie Wilson was describing back to school season and quoting an elderly survivor, she said “September. Everybody cry month. Back of truck. All kids gone. Everybody cry.”
And so, for Survivors of the Indian Residential School system and their families, September likely has a very different meaning to them.
We also cannot escape the obvious connections between Canada’s settler colonial past and present with this country’s complicity in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people. As Azeezah Kanji writes in a 2021 Yellowhead Institute brief that rings shamefully accurate today, “in Canada nothing could be closer than the violence of colonialism. It is as close as the stolen words of justice on our tongues, the stolen lives mourned in our hearts, and the stolen land beneath our feet.”
Local 2025 is proud to have September 30th enshrined in our collective agreement as a statutory holiday.
Each year we strive to advance the issue of reconciliation in our workplace, our union and in our community. Marking September 30th is one small but important way to do that.
This year we encourage you to:
- volunteer for the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation on Parliament Hill.
- Print and post the attached posters at your desk, on your wall, and/or use it as your virtual background.
- Participate in Education week at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. You can register here: NCTR Education Week events
- Any act, big or small is important. As long as it is done with respect, humility and love.
We are encouraging members to buy Orange Shirts from Indigenous owned businesses across the country.
For example - Native Northwest, Nish Tees, the NCTR gift shop, A New Dawn (healingbeginsnow.ca), Resist Clothing (all products made on Turtle Island), Old School General Store or of course, a shirt from The Orange Shirt Society https://orangeshirtday.org/merchandise/
The Local continues to offer lapel pins for Orange Shirt Day. We ask that you make a small donation to an organization (see below) doing work to support Survivors and their families. If you would like a Unifor orange shirt pin, please email Denise Hampden at HampdeD@psac-afpc.com.
Orange Shirt Day Society: https://orangeshirtday.org/support/
First Nations Child & Family Caring Society https://fncaringsociety.com/donate
Indian Residential School Survivor Society https://www.irsss.ca/donate-online
