09/30/2026
September 30 is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, also known as Orange Shirt Day — a day to honour residential school Survivors, their families, and the children who never came home.
We’re grateful to live, work, and care for our patients on the Treaty Lands and Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, and the traditional territory of the Huron-Wendat and Haudenosaunee peoples.
This history isn’t only in the past. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action include seven specifically on health care, because the health disparities Indigenous people face today are a direct result of colonial policy — and dentistry is not separate from that. First Nations children experience early childhood cavities at several times the rate of non-Indigenous children, and access to routine dental care remains a real, ongoing barrier for many Indigenous communities. That’s not a gap in effort. It’s a gap in access, generations in the making.
We believe every person who walks through our door deserves to feel safe, seen, respected, and comfortable, regardless of background — and we believe understanding this legacy, and the colonial violence that continues today both within Canada and around the world, is part of that respect.
We encourage everyone to take the time to sit with these uncomfortable truths, to better understand our own place in this legacy, so that harms like these are not repeated.
Resources: Orange Shirt Society (orangeshirtday.org) · National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (nctr.ca) · the TRC’s 94 Calls to Action (linked in bio/comments) · 24-hour National Indian Residential School Crisis Line for Survivors and families: 1-866-925-4419
