Nunavik leaders among Mary Simon’s final
Order of Canada appointments

When newly minted Order of Canada member Andrew Atagotaaluk chatted with Whit Fraser, the governor general’s husband, after Friday’s ceremony at Rideau Hall, Atagotaaluk shared the advice he received from a cousin while nervously awaiting the honour.

“My cousin said, ‘Don’t be nervous. It’s only Mary and Whit, and he was right on it,” said Atagotaaluk of Gov. Gen. Mary Simon and her husband. 

The exchange followed the ceremony where Simon invested 14 new officers and members of the Order of Canada in what is expected to be the final investiture of her five-year term before she steps down next month. 

“The Order is not only a means of recognition. It is an invitation to continue to lead with courage and deepen the ties we share as a nation,” Simon said.

The ceremony highlighted the contributions of two former Nunavik leaders, Atagotaaluk and Charlie Watt. 

Watt, a former senator from Kuujjuaq, was named an officer of the Order of Canada for his work advancing Inuit rights and helping negotiate the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, which is considered Canada’s first modern treaty.

“We grew up together in Kuujjuaq,” Watt said about Simon. “I think Mary has done a good job reminding politicians that she’s dealing with on a daily basis that there are people up there in the North, and they deserve to be dealt with.” 

He recalled his role in the patriation of Canada’s Constitution and the push to entrench Section 35, which recognizes and affirms the Aboriginal and treaty rights of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples in the Constitution.

“I started pressuring the prime minister [Pierre Elliott Trudeau] to look at it from the Inuit perspective,” Watt said.

Former senator Charlie Watt waits to be invested as an Officer of the Order of Canada during a ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on Friday. (Photo by Nehaa Bimal)

After months of negotiating with different provinces, in 1982, “we managed to get it back,” Watt said.

Atagotaaluk, a retired Anglican bishop from Inukjuak and the first Inuk diocesan bishop in the Anglican communion, was named a member of the Order of Canada. 

“When I had a call from the Governor General’s office, it was unexpected,” he said, adding that he initially planned to decline the honour. 

“Then I started to think about my late parents, my late grandparents and great-grandparents who lived on the land. I decided this is going to be an honour to them too,” said Atagotaaluk who was wearing an atigi and a beaded cross. 

He attended the ceremony with his wife Mary and their children, and said the recognition belongs to them as well.

“Our wives are the backbone behind the scenes of what we do,” he said. 

Atagotaaluk said that the rebuilding of the Anglican cathedral in Iqaluit after a devastating fire in 2005 was one of the greatest challenges of his ministry.

“The loss was a great burden to me, but the outcome at the end was a great victory,” he said, as the church was reopened in 2012.

Simon, Canada’s 30th Governor General and the first Indigenous person to hold the office, will complete her five-year term on June 8, when Louise Arbour is scheduled to be sworn in as her successor.