Lori Idlout ‘honoured and excited’ to be appointed to NDP shadow cabinet
Nunavut MP will serve as critic for Crown-Indigenous relations, Indigenous services and northern affairs
Nunavut MP Lori Idlout says she’s looking forward to taking on her new roles as the NDP’s critic for Crown-Indigenous relations, Indigenous services and northern affairs. (Photo by David Venn)
Nunavut MP Lori Idlout says she’s excited to be taking on several roles in the NDP’s shadow cabinet.
Idlout will serve as her party’s critic for Crown-Indigenous relations, Indigenous services and northern affairs, the party announced Friday.
“I feel pretty honoured and excited to be a critic for these three important roles,” she said. “I’ll be doing my best to hold these ministers to account and really just make sure we pressure them to follow through with the commitments that they made during the campaign.”
Idlout’s portfolios mean that she will scrutinize the dealings of Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller, Indigenous Services Minister Patty Hajdu and Northern Affairs Minister Daniel Vandal.
Idlout says she is “disappointed” by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s choices for those cabinet portfolios and that the government has not acted on the promises it has made to Indigenous communities since 2015.
“They have, in the past, continued to be the face of colonialism, and for them to be allowed to continue in their roles as cabinet ministers is frustrating,” she said. “[We need to] make sure that they don’t continue to break their promises.”
In responses to this week’s news that Pope Francis would be visiting Canada in December, Idlout said that the Catholic Church needs to apologize and accept responsibility for crimes committed against Indigenous people, and that individual priests need to be prosecuted.
“Priests that did abuse children need to be held to account,” she said. “They should be convicted, they should be considered criminals.”
Idlout said that she’s committed to working with different levels of government and Indigenous communities for the betterment of all of Canadian society.
“I think if we all work hard together, we’ll see a Canada that’s better for all Canadians, especially First Nations, Métis and Inuit,” she said.
I like her. She’s a good choice. That’s it
I think Lori will be a pretty solid MP. I didn’t vote NDP, but I still think she was be a strong choice, maybe even a great one. We will see.
Congratulations Lori on becoming our M. P.
I find it really good you are enthusiastic about getting an apology from the Pope about
the R. C. churches role in forcing residential schools on Idigenous people of Canada !
I hope that you are just as enthusiastic about getting an apology from native people ,
such as chiefs , mayors, teachers, who have abused & betrayed their own people and kin ?
Some people in Nunavut have fathered many children and never looked after them.
There should be penalties !
It would be good if all parties apologized together, about time
I dont normally vote NDP and after our last MP disaster, I thought there was no way they would be able to re-elect another NDP MP. I was wrong. Congrats Lori, even though we may not share the same views, she is clearly competent and driven and I wish her great success for representing all Nunavummiuit.