About
News and Media
National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
On September 30, 2025, the Canadian Council on Animal Care (CCAC) recognizes the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a day that honours survivors of residential schools and the children who never returned home, their families, and their communities. Today also marks Orange Shirt Day, an Indigenous-led grassroots commemorative event intended to raise awareness of the individual, family, and community intergenerational impacts of residential schools, and to promote the concept of “Every Child Matters”. The orange shirt is a symbol of the stripping away of culture, freedom, and self-esteem experienced by Indigenous children over generations.
The devastating legacy of residential schools endures across generations of Indigenous families and belongs to a larger history of systemic racism, discrimination, and injustice that Indigenous peoples have endured, and continue to face, in Canada.
The CCAC encourages members across its community to use today as a day of remembrance, reflection, action, and learning. The CCAC also continues to support Towards reconciliation: 10 Calls to Action to natural scientists working in Canada, a document that challenges the scientific community to recognize that reconciliation requires a new way of conducting natural science, one that includes and respects Indigenous communities, rights, and knowledge, leading to better scientific and community outcomes.