Orange shirts aren’t enough when systemic equality is backsliding – Policy Options

December 15, 2025

Mismatched perceptions show up in the Canadian Reconciliation Barometer. Symbolic gestures can’t replace the hard work of transforming systems.

Each year on Sept. 30, we see a flood of orange shirts in schools, at our places of work and the streets to mark Orange Shirt Day, which is also the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Symbols can be powerful. Land acknowledgments at NHL games, renaming universities and those waves of orange T-shirts can reach thousands, if not millions, of people.

These symbols can make us think and feel proud, even righteous. Symbolic reconciliation is helping. But it cannot change the systemic inequalities that still disadvantage Indigenous people in Canada which are getting worse, not better.

Read More: https://policyoptions.irpp.org/2025/12/reconciliation-beyond-symbols/