James C. McCrae, former attorney general of Manitoba and Canadian citizenship judge.(Note: “Indians” is used in this writing, not to be disrespectful, but to draw attention to the reality that today, in 2025, we still have an apartheid Indian Act, and we still cling to treaties which use the word throughout their texts.)September 30 is Canada’s National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, also known as Orange Shirt Day. It has been observed each year since 2021, following the Kamloops Indian band’s “discovery” of what were alleged to be the indecently interred remains of 215 indigenous schoolchildren. To date, the number of children’s remains actually recovered there is zero.Many Canadians didn’t wear orange shirts on those Orange Shirt Days. Out of respect, many would probably like to wear orange shirts, but they don’t want to be misunderstood, and they don’t want to be dishonest — with themselves, or anyone else.I am one of those Canadians who regrets those parts of Canadian history that have affected indigenous people — especially status Indians — in many negative ways. And they still do, the worst examples being the apartheid Indian Act and the treaties, all of which still exist and operate to continue the appalling inequality suffered by so many status Indians. But for some reason, Orange Shirt Day seems to be only about Canada’s Indian Residential Schools (IRS). On the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, there has been little talk about the real reasons why status Indians suffer from poor housing, dirty water, poor health, poor education, high levels of crime, incarceration, suicide, drug abuse, alcoholism, unemployment, children at risk — the list of pathologies is long. No, we’d rather bathe in the guilt we have been conditioned to feel, conditioned by unverified stories of the odious deaths of indigenous children at IRSs, specifically at the IRS at Kamloops..Many of the schools were established in response to the demands made by status Indian leadership, either pursuant to the treaties or otherwise; they were part of the Indian Act plan to prepare uneducated and impoverished Indians for the new way of life forced on everyone by rapidly changing industrial and agricultural developments. The schools were simply a means to an end, an end envisaged by both native and non-native leaders: preparation for indigenous success in a changing world.Orange Shirt Day is all about the residential schools, but the causes of all the dysfunction and division continuing in our country today have less to do with the schools, and much more to do with the Act and the treaties. After all, only about one-sixth of all school-aged indigenous children actually attended the schools, and many of them only for short periods.While Canadians feel regret, they should also acknowledge and appreciate the significant contributions to the building of our country by many generations of their non-native Canadian ancestors. Because of Canada’s apartheid regime, most of them never had much contact with their indigenous neighbours. Few of them had anything whatever to do with today’s societal pathologies, or any of the government decisions that have left indigenous folks today in conditions of poverty, dependence, anger, and bitterness.If I ever decide to wear an orange shirt, it will also be to celebrate the indigenous cultures that thrive today, the pride indigenous people feel about their ancestors and their ancestors’ role in the development and protection of our country. I will wear an orange shirt to demonstrate my hope that real change will eventually occur; that our leaders will see the wisdom of making equality happen; that Indian leaders will lead their people toward equality, rather than continue the current system, which works well for those leaders, but clearly is not working for ordinary indigenous Canadians..You see, most Canadians want only the best for everyone as we all look to the future. Orange shirts should be about hope for tomorrow’s Canadians, indigenous and otherwise. They should be about respect and acknowledgement of the past, but not about dwelling exclusively on the victimhood being promoted so widely today.My orange shirt will be worn when I believe we can achieve the dream of a better deal for all. But because of the current climate of division, anger, virtue-signalling, and accusations of denialism and worse, the wearing of orange shirts seems to be taking us in the opposite direction. Indigenous children obviously don’t matter enough. Until that changes, we can work harder to make indigenous children matter, or we can simply — and smugly — go on pretending that they already do.Work harder, Canada!James C. McCrae, former attorney general of Manitoba and Canadian citizenship judge.
