Indigenous veteran denounces convoy organizers’ attempts to adopt Orange Shirt Day

An Indigenous veteran from Ottawa is denouncing the attempts trucker convoy protest organizers are making to co-opt the Orange Shirt Day symbol for their own benefit.

As the “Freedom Convoy” demonstrations continue, there have been some videos circulating on social media of protest organizers sharing their potential plans.

“Orange Shirt Day tomorrow. We’re doing 'Every Child Matters' tomorrow, a moment of silence at (Parliament Hill) and everywhere else for the kids,” said one convoy organizer in a video livestreamed on Facebook on Thursday, February 10. “A worldwide walkout for the kids — let’s go, kids. Let’s go. Get those masks off. You don’t need them.”

“Every Child Matters” is a slogan used to support Orange Shirt Day, an initiative commemorated each year on September 30 created to raise awareness about Canada's residential school system and its impact on Indigenous communities for more than a century.

Residential school survivor Phyllis Webstad created Orange Shirt Day in 2013. At six-years-old, she attended her first day of school at St. Joseph’s Mission donning a brand-new orange shirt, a favourite top she received from her family, which was taken away and never returned.

“How someone can feel that they can co-opt that?” Sahtu Dene veteran Tim O'Loan said. “This is not a movement of freedom. This is a movement of privilege. … It has nothing to do with Orange Shirt Day, and it's just offensive on so many levels.”

Orange Shirt Day began in 2013 after I shared my story of wearing an orange shirt on my first day at SJM Residential School. From that day, the color orange became a symbol of the effects of residential schools & “Every Child Matters” – Phyllis Webstad, Ambassador @OrangeShirtSoc pic.twitter.com/kzz2rLc1M5

— Orange Shirt Society (@OrangeShirtSoc) February 11, 2022

O'Loan, who served in the military for a decade before starting his studies in political science and eventually Canadian studies, said these trucker convoy protests have already been so emotion for many Canadians.

“This was emotional — so emotional — for so many Canadians as they witnessed the desecration of spaces like the Aboriginal Veterans Memorial, the National Monument, as well,” he told The Sam Laprade Show. “It just seems to be, 'Who are they going to try and co-opt tomorrow?'”'

On Thursday, February 10, Orange Shirt Day creator Phyllis Webstad and the Orange Shirt Society said in a press release that there's only one day for the holiday, and that's on September 30.

Webstad went on to write in the release that “the Orange Shirt Society does not endorse the recent announcement of Orange Shirt Day occuring on February 11 by protest organizers.”

The society already published a statement on its social media on Wednesday, February 2 indicating it has not endorsed the “Freedom Convoy” protesters.

“The 'Freedom Convoy' and 'Every Child Matters' are separate causes with very different objectives,” that statement read. “Flags, banners or any other messaging highlighting 'Every Child Matters' at the 'Freedom Convoy' or in their online communications are not endorsed by the Orange Shirt Society.”

A similar livestream video with protest organizers indicating potential plans to bring the convoy near Ottawa children also circulated onsocial media on Thursday, February 10.

That video shows Pat King and another organizer discussing potential plans to lead the trucker convoy past schools.

“Yeah, go to the schools and let the kids see the convoy,” one organizer said in the livestream.

“There’s a good one,” said King. “We’d go roll the schools.

“Every child matters.”

The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board tweeted on Thursday that it learned of social media posts indicating these potential plans. The school board had contacted Ottawa Police Services and was readying a shelter if necessary.

“I don't see that they are intentionally trying to upset people,” Indigenous veteran Tim O'Loan said. “What I see is they're in desperation mode trying to shift to give themselves credibility because they have no credibility in the real world. This whole thing is just on a parallel universe.”