Fifty-one years ago today, Phyllis Webstad arrived at St. Joseph's Mission Residential School in British Columbia. She was full of excitement about her new school and wore a bright orange t-shirt she had picked out herself while shopping with her grandmother. But on her first day, the six-year-old child was stripped of all her clothing, including the t-shirt she had chosen.
Phyllis Webstad’s orange shirt will forever represent everything that was stolen from generations past, present and future by the residential school system: languages, traditions, stories. Lives. The goal of forced assimilation was truly a form of genocide, meant to eliminate the entire history and culture of Canada’s Indigenous peoples.
Today, on September 30, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation – or Orange Shirt Day – we remember and honour the legacies that were destroyed by the residential school system. And we commit to ending and rectifying the injustices that continue to impact Indigenous nations across Canada.
As a federal public sector union, CAPE has a special responsibility to support Indigenous sovereignty and hold the government accountable for its commitments to reconciliation and Indigenous self-determination. We have fought to have the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation made a paid holiday for our members, secured leave for Indigenous members to engage in traditional practices, and are working to secure remote work flexibility to allow Indigenous federal employees to stay and work in their communities.
On September 18, CAPE members proudly joined the Grassy Narrows River Run, marching alongside youth, elders, and community members, as well as labour leaders and allies from across the country, to call for justice. CAPE has also shown up to support the Kebaowek First Nation in their refusal of the near surface disposal facility at Chalk River, which would release radioactive materials into a wetland.
We will always use our platform to stand in solidarity with First Nations, Inuit and Métis people across Turtle Island. We must, if we are going to make real progress towards true reconciliation and a stronger future for Indigenous nations and all people across this land.
In solidarity,
Nathan Prier
