November 2027: Indigenous Veterans, Transgender Remembrance & Ending Gender-Based Violence

More than 12,000 Indigenous people are estimated to have served in the First and Second World Wars and the Korean War alone, many volunteering at rates higher than the general population, and returning home to find they were denied the same benefits and recognition given to non-Indigenous veterans.

Transgender Day of Remembrance (November 20) has been observed since 1999, established to honour Rita Hester, a Black transgender woman murdered in Boston in 1998 in a case that remains unsolved. The day now memorializes transgender and gender-diverse people killed by violence worldwide each year — recent tracking counted over 340 reported deaths in a single 12-month reporting period, and Statistics Canada has recorded that police-reported hate crimes targeting gender identity or expression more than doubled between 2020 and 2023.

International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (November 25) opens Canada's 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, running through Human Rights Day on December 10. Recent Women and Gender Equality Canada data shows police-reported intimate partner violence rose 14% between 2018 and 2024, with women and girls accounting for 78% of victims.

Why This Matters — The Business Case

Indigenous Veterans Day is a direct test of whether your organization's Remembrance-season recognition is genuinely complete or only partial — the day exists specifically because Indigenous service went unacknowledged elsewhere, so skipping it while still marking November 11 repeats the exact gap the day was created to address. 

On transgender inclusion, the stakes are unusually high and current: with police-reported hate crimes targeting gender identity more than doubling in three years, workplace safety for trans and non-binary employees isn't an abstract value statement, it's responding to a documented, worsening trend. 

And on gender-based violence, the connection to the workplace is direct and often underestimated: victims of intimate partner violence frequently experience effects that follow them to work — safety concerns, absenteeism, reduced concentration — meaning workplace policy (flexible leave, safety planning support, manager awareness) is a genuine point of intervention, not solely a personal issue outside an employer's scope.

This Month's Dates

Observance	Date	What it is
Indigenous Veterans Day	November 8	Day honouring the contributions of First Nations, Inuit, and Métis veterans
Transgender Day of Remembrance	November 20	Day memorializing transgender and gender-diverse people killed by violence
International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women	November 25	Opens Canada's 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence

What To Do This Week

Indigenous Veterans Day: If your organization marks Remembrance Day (November 11) in any way, check whether Indigenous Veterans Day gets equivalent acknowledgment, or whether it's skipped entirely. How: A short internal note on November 8, separate from your November 11 recognition, is enough to signal this isn't an afterthought. The Canadian Encyclopedia's overview provides accurate background for internal messaging.

Transgender Day of Remembrance: Check whether your workplace's harassment and discrimination policy explicitly names gender identity and gender expression as protected categories, not just "discrimination" in general terms. How: A five-minute policy review is enough — if gender identity isn't specifically named, that's this week's fix. PSAC's overview of the day connects the observance directly to workplace inclusion.

International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women: Check whether your workplace has any policy or informal practice for supporting an employee who discloses they're experiencing intimate partner violence — leave flexibility, confidentiality, safety planning awareness. How: If no such practice exists, even a basic internal guideline (who to talk to, what flexibility is available) is a meaningful first step. Canada's 16 Days of Activism page has resources appropriate for internal sharing.

Inclusion Tip of the Month

Allyship shows up most in the small, inconvenient moments — correcting a misgendering, crediting an idea to the person who said it first. Pick one this month and actually do it.

Copy-and-Use Template (Internal Slack message)

"November 20 is Transgender Day of Remembrance. We're taking a moment to reflect on the violence trans and gender-diverse people continue to face, and to recommit to making this a genuinely safe workplace — not just in policy, but in how we treat each other day to day."

Avoid This

• Marking Remembrance Day but skipping Indigenous Veterans Day entirely. This repeats the exact historical exclusion the day was created to address — partial recognition here is worse than none, because it signals the gap was noticed and left unaddressed anyway.
• Treating Transgender Day of Remembrance as disconnected from current workplace policy. Given the documented rise in hate crimes targeting gender identity, this is not a historical observance — it's responding to an active, worsening trend that has direct workplace implications.
• Posting awareness content for the 16 Days of Activism without any internal support mechanism behind it. If an employee experiencing gender-based violence wouldn't know who to talk to at your organization, the messaging isn't backed by anything real.

FAQ

Is Indigenous Veterans Day a replacement for Remembrance Day? No — it's a complementary, distinct observance specifically honouring First Nations, Inuit, and Métis veterans, created because their service was historically excluded from general Remembrance Day recognition, not as a substitute for it.

Do we need a formal policy for supporting employees experiencing intimate partner violence, or is informal flexibility enough? A written guideline is stronger than informal flexibility, mainly because it ensures consistency — without one, support can depend entirely on which manager an employee happens to have, which creates real inequity.

Is the 16 Days of Activism campaign only relevant to violence outside the workplace? No — the effects of gender-based violence, including intimate partner violence, frequently follow victims into work in the form of safety concerns, absenteeism, and reduced ability to focus, making it directly relevant to workplace policy.

Coming Up in December

December closes the year with the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Canada's National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, and Human Rights Day — bringing the 16 Days of Activism to a close. Check back December 1.