Ads Up Canada acknowledges that Indigenous peoples are the traditional stewards of this land that we call Canada. We respect and affirm the inherent Aboriginal and Treaty Rights of all Indigenous Peoples across this land and will commit to honoring the right to self-determination and sovereignty of Indigenous Nations and Peoples.

We pay respect to the Original Peoples of the lands and territories upon which Ads Up Canada works and invites newcomers to live. We recognize that Indigenous peoples have existed on this land since time immemorial, have maintained their own forms of government and have never ceased to exist in relationship to their traditional lands. We also recognize that sovereign Indigenous peoples agreed Treaties in vast geographic areas of Canada and which, while they have not been appropriately respected by Canada, remain in effect and have the full force of Canadian law.  All settlers live on lands subject to Treaty or claim and as such are guests who hold responsibilities for the relationship with the specific Indigenous peoples whose land they are on.

As an organization that supports refugees who have been forced to leave their homelands, we acknowledge the impact of forced separation from traditional lands, culture, language and the right to self-determination. We commit to incorporating Indigenous history and contemporary lived realities, and knowledge of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), as part of our work in settling newcomers to this country. We fully support the implementation of the TRC Calls to Action, and commit to;

  • Listening, learning and amplifying the voices of Residential School Survivors, and acknowledging the unresolved grief and intergenerational trauma caused by the Indian Residential School system.
  • Working towards reconciliation by learning about the colonial impact of settler presence on this land, the effects on Indigenous communities and community members across Canada, in the past and present.
  • Acknowledging our place as newcomers to this land, and the systems that we benefit from, that are rooted deeply in colonization and systemic settler colonialism across Canada. 
  • We will work as an organization, and with our volunteers and refugee newcomers, to dialogue and explore new opportunities to support healing and reconciliation with the traditional custodians of the lands on which we live and work.