Questions arise over Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries Orange Shirt Day purchase

Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries is facing criticism over how it purchased its Orange Shirt Day T-shirts after it came to light the Crown corporation used a non-Indigenous company to produce them and is not planning to make any donations to Indigenous non-profits.

Earlier this year, the Crown corporation put out a bid looking for a company to print about 9,000 T-shirts — 7,000 shirts for their various festivals, plus an additional 2,000 for Orange Shirt Day.

In April, it was awarded to a Winnipeg-based, non-Indigenous, custom printing company that CBC News decided not to name.

A spokesperson for the Crown corporation said it followed procurement guidelines.

However, the award raised questions about how government organizations should support Indigenous businesses on Sept. 30, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

“It is part of reconciliation,” said Michelle Cameron, owner of Dreamcatcher Promotions, an Indigenous-owned promotions company based in Headingley, about 20 km west of Winnipeg.

Orange Shirt Day “is an Indigenous campaign and if you really wanted to do the right thing, try and search out an Indigenous printing company… from start to finish.”

On Sept. 30, people across the province will be donning orange shirts in an acknowledgement of the ongoing harms of residential schools to Indigenous peoples.

The “orange shirt” refers to the shirt Phyllis Webstad was given by her grandmother for her first day at St. Joseph’s Mission residential school in British Columbia.

When Phyllis got to school, they took away her clothes, including her new shirt, which was never returned.

Cameron’s mother, aunts and uncles are all residential school survivors.

Her company sells orange shirts out of its Polo Park clothing store and its Winnipeg-based Indigenous Nations Clothing Apparel Company (INAC). It also does custom prints.

She commends anyone who supports the day by wearing a shirt but said they need to understand why they should support Indigenous companies and organizations.

The “orange T-shirt means people are understanding and they’re hearing the story of residential schools,” she said.

Crown corporation plans to give shirts away

The Liquor & Lotteries spokesperson said they ended up ordering 1,900 T-shirts for Orange Shirt Day from the local company that won the contract.

The majority of the shirts, which were designed by a local Indigenous artist, will be given to employees for free and a few hundred will be sold at casinos in Winnipeg at cost.

The spokesperson said because the shirts are being given away or sold at cost, no proceeds or donations will be made to a third party. They chose not to charge employees for the shirts so there would be no barriers to wearing them.

The spokesperson said they reached out to several Indigenous companies to tell them about the opportunity for the contract — including talking to someone at the INAC clothing store. However, Cameron said they have no record of communication with Liquor and Lotteries.

Other organizations donate proceeds

CBC News reached out to the province’s other major Crown corporations, post-secondary institutions and government organizations and found most had plans to donate proceeds to an Indigenous non-profit and many got their shirts from an Indigenous company.

Manitoba Hydro, Shared Health and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority all gave their employees an opportunity to buy shirts procured from Cameron’s company. They also put into place a plan to donate proceeds to Indigenous non-profits.

Manitoba Public Insurance and the Manitoba government both said they did not have a centralized T-shirt ordering plan.

Red River College sold shirts at its campus store designed by a local Indigenous artist, but purchased them through a non-Indigenous company. All proceeds from Orange Shirt Day sales go toward the Mínwastánikéwin Truth and Reconciliation Award.

The University of Manitoba did not respond to the request and a spokesperson for University of Winnipeg said they have a couple of hundred shirts ordered, but don’t know the source.

Cameron said this year they partnered with major companies like Canadian Tire, which ordered 20,000 shirts to sell in its stores across Canada.

The net proceeds of the T-shirt sales will go to Orange Shirt Society’s Orange Jersey Project — an initiative that educates youth hockey teams about the history of the residential school system.

Liquor & Lotteries said they couldn’t use a sole source for the contract because of the high number of T-shirts they had to print for all their festivals. The spokesperson did not say why they included Orange Shirt Day shirts in the bid.

‘It should be every day’

Jennifer Wood, a commemoration and community engagement liaison officer at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, said she appreciates people wearing orange shirts, but wants to know what else Crown corporations are doing outside of Sept. 30.

“It shouldn’t be one day. It should be every day,” she said.

For “our major corporations in Winnipeg it would be very good if they stepped up to do more…that they fund programs in schools, that they fund the [anti-]homelessness initiative downtown.”

Wood, a residential school survivor, said corporations need to do their research or reach out to places like the National Centre or Orange Shirt Society, a non-profit organization with its home in Williams Lake, B.C., about 520 km northeast of Vancouver, where Orange Shirt Day began in 2013.

“I would go and ask them where the proceeds go.… Are you assisting First Nations?” she said.

“When you’re wearing the orange shirt, let them know about the injustices that occurred. Get your staff to be educated on what really happened to our people — why the orange shirt is so important.”

The National Centre also sells Orange Day T-shirts and uses the proceeds to fund initiatives for survivors.

“The orange shirt represents to me that you’re respecting the legacy of residential schools, that you’re looking at remembering the children that never made it home,” she told CBC News.