We acknowledge the land we are standing on is the territory of many nations including the Anishnabeg, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples and is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. We also acknowledge that Toronto is the treaty territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit through Treaty 13.

We also acknowledge that we are all Treaty peoples – including those who came here as settlers – as migrants either in this generation or in generations past and those of us who came here involuntarily, particularly as a result of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Today, we pay tribute to the ancestors of those of African-Indigenous origin and descent, and the ancestors of those of Asian origin and descent who came here and faced great challenge.