BC Lions announce plans for annual Orange Shirt Day game

The BC Lions will host their third annual Orange Shirt Day game on Friday, Sept. 29, marking Canada's National Day for Truth and Reconciliation with a variety of events and activities.

Players will take the field before their game against the Saskatchewan Roughriders wearing special warm-up jerseys, which will be raffled off in support of the Orange Shirt Society and the Indian Residential Schools Survivors’ Society.

The team will also be presenting a $20,000 cheque to the Orange Shirt Society and providing 750 free tickets to the game to residential school survivors and their families.

The first 10,000 fans to arrive ahead of the 7:30 p.m. kickoff will receive orange shirts with the translation of the words "mountain lion" in the Squamish and hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ (Musqueam and Tseil-Waututh) languages on them, the team announced Tuesday.

"We are extremely proud to be hosting the Orange Shirt Day game for our third year to show our support on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and to also join the entire Canadian Football League in honouring this important day on the calendar," said Jamie Taras, director of community partnerships for the BC Lions, in a statement.

"As an organization, we feel it is important to broaden our own understanding of the painful history and ongoing impacts of residential schools, to raise awareness with our fans and to continue to build strong relationships within the Indigenous community."

The theme of this year's game will be "Sport Is Ceremony," and multiple Indigenous artists are scheduled to perform. Halftime will feature a performance from Canadian electronic duo The Halluci Nation, while DJ Oshow will provide pregame entertainment.

The team will also host an Indigenous Marketplace, presented by Destination Indigenous, allowing vendors to promote and sell their products.

Residential school survivors and their allies have marked Sept. 30 as Orange Shirt Day since 2013. The federal government made the date a statutory holiday in 2021.

Creating a federal holiday to acknowledge and reflect on the legacy of Canada's residential school system – which removed Indigenous children from their communities and forbade them from speaking their languages or practicing their cultures – was one of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's 94 calls to action.