Now Canada’s Governor General, Mary Simon was formerly a pillar in Nunavik politics

Canada’s first Indigenous Governor General, the Rt. Hon. Mary Simon, was born in Kangiqsualujjuaq in 1947. Her political career as an advocate for Nunavik, the Inuit, and the Arctic spans over 50 years.

Simon’s career began when she was 22 years old in front of a microphone as a CBC broadcaster for its Northern Service, which featured Inuktitut-language radio and television programming.

Simon served in several key positions with the Northern Quebec Inuit Association and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, focusing on negotiating the first land claims agreement in Canada, and the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement. As president of Makivvik Corp., she was involved with implementing the JBNQA, as well as the protection and promotion of Inuit rights.

Her words are featured in the Taqralik Magazine in 1976, where she gives an update on the negotiations in Schefferville between the Naskapi, Inuit, and Crees over land claims. And she also helps the Naskapi negotiate their agreement with the government, which would lead to the creation of the Northeastern Quebec Agreement in 1978.

Shortly after the agreement was signed, she became part of the first group of Nunavimmiut to hold leadership positions at Makivvik, starting as the corporate secretary-treasurer in 1975 and the second vice-president in 1978. She then took a position as secretary general of Kativik Ilisarniliriniq, and in 1982, became Makivvik’s first and only female president to date.

At the time, she ran a campaign based on change. She stated in her electoral speech that Makivvik had lost $10.4 million in four years. She also said she wanted to increase the connectivity and involvement of Nunavik communities in Makivvik.

In 1984, she faced off with Canada’s then-prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau in a high-profile moment where she advocated for Indigenous rights to be included in the patriation of the Canadian Constitution, which initially was written to entrench the rights of Indigenous peoples.

“I could tell you a very sad story about my mother, who was impacted by the Indian Act, who was discriminated against,” Simon said, looking at directly at Trudeau during a recording of the meeting archived by CBC. “And thank goodness, because of the [JBNQA], I have my status back.”

Simon has been a continuous figure in Arctic politics, from being the Inuit Circumpolar Council president in 1986, policy co-director at Canada’s Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples in 1993, Circumpolar ambassador of Canada in 1995, Canada’s ambassador to Denmark in 1999, to being elected the Inuit Tapiriit Kantami president in 2006.

Now, she serves in her fourth year as Canada’s 30th Governor General, continuing the promotion of Inuit rights and beliefs.

This article is part of Nunatsiaq News’ commemoration of the 50^th anniversary of the signing of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement in 1975.

This project has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada.