Statement from Premier Wab Kinew on Orange Shirt Day

September 30, 2024

Today, we join Manitobans in commemorating Orange Shirt Day. This day is an opportunity to honour residential school survivors. We reflect on the children taken, the parents left behind and the children who never came home.

This year marks the first time Orange Shirt Day will be a provincial statutory holiday in Manitoba. Our government holds sacred the chance to give working Manitobans a paid day off. It’s our hope you spend this day with your family, enjoying each other’s company – a thing that was denied for so many Indigenous families.

My dad, like thousands of Indigenous children, was taken from his parents as a child. His story, and the story of so many residential school survivors, is why we wear orange shirts and wave signs that reaffirm this fundamental truth – every child matters.

Every person in our province matters. Every Manitoban deserves a good life.

May Orange Shirt Day bring people from all walks of life together around what must always come first – family.

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For more information:

• Public information, contact Manitoba Government Inquiry: 1-866-626-4862 or 204-945-3744.
• Media requests for general information, contact Communications and Engagement: newsroom@gov.mb.ca.
• Media requests for ministerial comment, contact Cabinet Communications: cabcom@manitoba.ca.

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