Mary Simon, Canada s new Governor General, speaks during an announcement at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que., on Tuesday, July 6, 2021. Photo by: The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick
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OTTAWA Mary Simon, an Inuk leader and former diplomat, described her appointment as Canada s next governor general the first Indigenous person to serve in the role as a “step forward on the long path to reconciliation.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced Simon as the next person to serve in the viceregal role during a news conference Tuesday at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que., in which the theme of healing long-standing divides figured prominently.
Published Tuesday, July 6, 2021 10:06AM EDT Last Updated Tuesday, July 6, 2021 8:44PM EDT OTTAWA -
Mary
Simon, an Inuk leader and former diplomat, described her appointment as Canada s next governor general - the first Indigenous person to serve in the role - as a “step forward on the long path to reconciliation.” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced
Simon as the next person to serve in the viceregal role during a news conference Tuesday at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que., in which the theme of healing long-standing divides figured prominently. “It is only by building bridges, bringing between people in the North and South, just like in the East and West, that we can truly move forward,” Trudeau said during his opening remarks.
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“I wish you and your sisters would take it out of your head that somehow we are deliberately trying to frustrate the concept of equality,” he said during a constitutional conference in Ottawa.
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The conference was designed to clarify how the 1982 constitution, which had repatriated Canada’s founding documents from Britain and created the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, would incorporate Indigenous rights.
The young woman, Mary Simon, who is now set to become Canada’s next Governor General, pushed back and argued with Trudeau Sr. that it was essential the law make clear men and women would be able to pass on their Indigenous status, regardless of whether they married non-Indigenous people.
(Justin Trudeau/Twitter)
A residential school Survivor is Queen s newest representative.
At a Tuesday press conference at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Mary Simon, an Inuit woman, will be Canada s 30th Governer General after receiving Queen Elizabeth II s approval. I am honoured and humbled to be Canada s first Indigenous Governor General, Simon says. I can confidently say that this appointment is a historic and inspirational moment for Canada.
Simon began her remarks Inuktitut, another first.
She was raised in Kuujjuaq, a village on the shore of Koksoak River on Ungava Bay in Quebec and former Hudson s Bay post. Simon attended Fort Chimo day school, where she was denied the ability to learn French despite in the predominantly French-speaking Quebec, something she says she is working on. Her father was a white fur trader from Manitoba. Simon says she led a very traditional lifestyle and says her
Canada names first Indigenous governor general
Posted : 2021-07-07 11:25
Updated : 2021-07-07 11:25
Mary Simon attends a news conference where she is announced as the next Governor General of Canada in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada, July 6. Reuters-Yonhap
An Inuk leader who has served as a Canadian diplomat was named the country s first Indigenous representative of the crown on Tuesday ― an announcement that comes in the wake of a scandal over the nation s long mistreatment of Indigenous people.
In naming the next governor general, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it is only by building bridges can the people of Canada move forward together.