This year, Orange Shirt Day gained an additional spotlight when a young Quality Foods employee was sent home for wearing his orange shirt on Sept. 30. Orange Shirt Day honours those affected by residential schools, and it has been gaining traction and awareness over the past few years.
I’ve participated since I learned about it. Schools across our region participate, and many employers, including my own, encourage staff to participate. I was shocked to hear an employee was sent home for wearing an orange shirt.
When Edwin Frommelt began his shift at the View Royal store, he was approached by management asking him to adhere to the dress code by wearing a white shirt and tie or leave the store. His attempts to explain Orange Shirt Day weren’t received well and, without a change of clothes, he left.
I think the problem was a lack of awareness, and I know that not everyone can know about every event. This should have been handled better from the get-go and Quality Foods has acknowledged this publicly.
“I took the bus to work that day, and the bus driver was wearing an orange shirt. We drove past some police officers who were wearing orange shirts over their bulletproof vests,” Frommelt said. “I should have told my manager I was planning to wear an orange shirt that day. I really thought everyone knew about it.”
Frommelt is a husband and father to two young children. On Sept. 30, his entire family put on their matching orange shirts with the word “Reconciliation” across their chests.
“When I was sent home I felt helpless,” said Frommelt who is Ojibway Cree from the Peguis Nation near Selkirk, Manitoba.
If the argument is dress code, Frommelt has seen this waived on a variety of occasions during his year working at the grocery store. Frommelt said Quality Foods staff have been encouraged to wear Halloween costumes during the last week of October, pink shirts for Pink Shirt Day, jeans for jeans-day fundraisers and team jerseys in support of the Humboldt bus crash victims.
Again, this could have been a case of lack of awareness, as this day was established just six years ago.
When Frommelt was sent home, he called his wife, Amanda Delorme.
“When Edwin called me, my stomach turned and it broke my heart. That night I laid beside him in bed and just cried,” Delorme said.
Delorme posted on social media about her husband being sent home. The post went viral across the country. It was the post that prompted the news media to start calling.
Frommelt doesn’t want anyone to boycott Quality Foods. He’s a customer and employee of the store. All he wanted to do was bring awareness to Orange Shirt Day, and it’s fair to say he has achieved his goal.
“On my first shift back, over a dozen customers came up to me and thanked me for having a voice and asked to shake my hand,” Frommelt said. “Some of them were even wearing orange shirts and it made me feel supported.”
At first, when I read the public apologies, I wasn’t sure if they were enough. I called Phyllis Webstad, the founder of Orange Shirt Day, and she changed my mind.
“Orange Shirt Day is just starting out and not everyone knows about it yet and that’s OK. Orange Shirt Day is about creating conversations and bringing awareness to residential schools and what we went through,” said Webstad. “Quality Foods has tried to make it right, and their response was positive.”
Webstad was the little girl who had her orange shirt taken from her on her first day of residential school. This is her day, and if she has acknowledged and accepted Quality Foods’ apologies, then I can, too.
Webstad, like Frommelt, has said she doesn’t want people to stop shopping at Quality Foods. She reiterated that it isn’t about shaming anyone, it’s about bringing awareness and education. Webstad is proud of Frommelt for his courage in the situation.
“If this is the next generation, our world is in good hands,” she said. “I am looking forward to seeing what Quality Foods does next Orange Shirt Day.
“All eyes are going to be on them.”
Charla Huber works in communications and Indigenous relations for M’akola Group of Societies.
