Green Shirt Day in Canada Date in the current year: April 7, 2024

There are situations when an organ transplant is the only thing that can save a patient’s life. The availability of donor organs depends on many factors, including the consent system in a given jurisdiction. There are two main approaches to consent for posthumous donation:

• Voluntary consent (opt-in): people who want to donate their organs after death have to actively sign up to a donor register while they are still alive.
• Presumed consent (opt-out): deceased people are automatically considered organ donors unless they made a specific request before death for their organs not to be donated.

Countries with opt-out systems tend to have higher organ donation rates due to the default effect, although this is not always the case. In countries with opt-in systems, various awareness campaigns are organized to encourage people to register as organ donors. Canada, for example, has Green Shirt Day, which is observed annually on April 7. Its date was chosen to commemorate the victims of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash.

On April 6, 2018, the Humboldt Broncos junior ice hockey team was headed to a playoff game in Nipawin, Saskatchewan when its bus collided with a semi-trailer truck. Sixteen of the 30 people on board were killed in the accident: ten players aged between 16 and 21, two coaches (the head coach/general manager and the assistant coach), an athletic therapist, a radio broadcaster, a volunteer, and the bus driver.

One of the ten players killed in the accident was defenseman Logan Boulet, who succumbed to his injuries on April 7. His parents decided to donate Logan’s organs because they were aware of his intention to register as an organ donor, saving six lives. As news spread of their decision, almost 150,000 Canadians were inspired to register as organ donors in the days and weeks following the bus crash. This wave of organ donor registrations has been dubbed the “Logan Boulet Effect”.

The next year, Green Shirt Day was created in honor of the Logan Boulet Effect to support organ donor awareness and registration across the country. According to statistics, almost 90% of Canada’s population support organ donation, but only 32% have actually registered as organ donor. Approximately 250 Canadians die every year before they get an organ transplant, so it is extremely important to keep the conversation about organ donation going.

There are several ways to get involved with Green Shirt Day. If you haven’t registered as an organ donor, do it! If you’ve already registered, support the campaign by spreading awareness. You can wear green to start conversations about organ donation, organize a registration drive in your community, light up your neighborhood green, purchase an official Green Shirt Day t-shirt or hockey jersey, and spread the word on social media with the hashtags #GreenShirtDay and #LoganBouletEffect.