‘Our nation needs healing’: Mary Simon to visit sites of unmarked graves
Governor General shared the news at a virtual event, hosted by the Famous 5 Foundation
Michèle Stanners, left, asked Gov. Gen. Mary Simon, right, questions about reconcilliation, climate change, and mental health at a virtual webinar hosted by the Famous 5 Foundation. (Screenshot from the Zoom webinar)
Gov. Gen. Mary Simon says she plans on visiting the sites of former residential schools where unmarked graves have been located, pending pandemic restrictions.
Simon shared the news Friday afternoon in response to a question at a virtual webinar hosted by the Famous 5 Foundation, an organization that “aims to celebrate women’s successes, and inspire them to become nation builders” in the name of the five women who won the 1929 “Person’s Case” for gender equality.
Michèle Stanners, the moderator of the webinar, asked Simon what she thought her role was in moving reconciliation forward in Canada. Simon, an Inuk woman and the first Indigenous person to hold the vice-regal post, responded by saying that Canadians need to be willing to have difficult conversations about residential schools, with a focus on education and healing.
“Our nation needs healing, it needs a lot of healing,” Simon said. “Indigenous people, on the one hand, who have experienced all this trauma, need space for healing as well.”
Simon said she hopes to visit Indigenous communities across Canada with emphasis on those that have been affected by the discoveries of children’s unmarked graves.
“The pain that people are feeling as a result of that is extreme, and they are reliving the past of what they went through, and there needs to be a lot of healing there,” she said.
Throughout the 50-minute webinar, Simon covered several issues that she has previously addressed as her priorities as governor general.
On climate change, Simon emphasized the importance of listening to Inuit, who live off the land in coastal communities, as they are some of the most affected by the issue. Simon also addressed the need for mental health care in Inuit communities–a service that is often neglected in the north.
Simon also took the time to talk about how her life has changed since moving into Rideau Hall with her husband, Whit Fraser, and their dog, Neva.
“The dog has adjusted the best, I think,” she said. “She has a big yard and lots of places to play, and it’s a wonderful spot.”
Simon says she and Fraser have been keeping busy with work and have settled comfortably in the official residence, where they have been living since July.
However, with COVID-19, Simon said she wishes she could host more public events on the large property, just northeast of downtown Ottawa.
She also said that she misses traveling to the north, and spending time with family in Kuujjuaq, her home community.
“I miss going up to the Arctic a lot because I used to go a lot, but since the pandemic started I haven’t been able to go, which is over two years now,” she said. “I have seven siblings living in Kuujjuaq, so we have a big family up there.”
The word ajuinnata, which means “never give up” in Inuktitut, was a recurring theme of the webinar.
Simon said ajuinnata has inspired her since she was young, and that it continues to guide the work she does with staff at Rideau Hall.
She said that in this “challenging” time the world is going through, with the pandemic and watching the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it’s important for Canadians to keep ajuinnata in mind as they go about their lives.
“My message to Canadians is always to remember where we are, where we come from, who we are, and for us, as Canadians, feel blessed that we live in a wonderful country like Canada, and we all need to work at making it better,” she said. “We need to never give up on the future of our country.”
Ground radar searches are revealing more anomalies/bodies. 170 recently in Alberta again I hear. It is not making much of a ripple in the news cycle. That is where we are as a nation, Canada is failing badly with no thought or care of what those children went through.
An unmarked grave, (not a “mass grave” as some of our poorly incentivized media have stooped to call it–not sure if NN is guilty of this) can be a grave where markers have worn away over the years. Undoubtably there are tens of thousands of people in unmarked graves across the country, in fact it’s probably higher than that.
Of course, it’s true that in this case the people / children buried in these ones were probably not considered as valuable due to their social class and race.
I think we need to understand what happened here too, but when you say something like “Canada is failing badly with no thought or care of what those children went through” I honestly don’t know what you are looking for? What do you want to see happen that will make you feel like Canada is not failing on this?
The kowtow from Ottawa to war mongers, the amount of straight up war propaganda was affecting my day. Nonetheless excusing the system of that time is not right. Not even notifying families back home, that can’t be brushed off when a child passes.
How can anyone be expected to decrypt this weird message? Why can’t people be clear in their messaging?
I just have to say, that there are so many comments in this site that make no sense. As for a response to it, it’s best to ignore. When I do see such nonsense, my first impression is to be sympathetic to a possible seeker of help in illness, frustration or pure ignorance and even boredom. Don’t forget that many people are struggling to deal with their own bad day, don’t let it be your bad day too.
Anomalies do not equal remains ChesLey. Be cognizant of how things are written – it makes a difference.
Exactly, that is why language, words are so important, it is common place by media, used to sanitize the unsanitizeable.
This rhetoric around “unmarked graves” is endless and mindless. People died in the old days, of illness, accidents, and the lack of modern medical care. Bodies could not be shipped long distances to be repatriated to their original communities in the days of slow and infrequent transportation. Grave markers have always gone missing over time.
Where are all the “marked” inuit graves from before the 1960’s? Are people upset about that? If not, why not?
Inuit do not have a tradition of marking graves for eternity, so maybe realize that you are being manipulated by activists over a non-issue for the same old political reasons that will not be of any benefit to anyone except the politicians who look to divide us for their own gain.
– It is not rhetoric nor mindless.
– The mortality rate of children at residential schools was much higher than outside residential schools. Sure, “people died in the olden days” and whatever excuses you rattle on about, but Indigenous children were dying at alarming rates at residential schools. There was rampant mistreatment, sexual, psychological and physical abuse at these schools.
– This is not manipulation by activists.
– This is not a “non-issue”. Just because you don’t give a sheet about these Indigenous children, doesn’t mean it’s not important to find the facts.
So Barry, do you really care about the “rampant mistreatment, sexual, psychological and physical abuse” of inuit kids? If so, do you give a “sheet” as you say about the rampant mistreatment, sexual, psychological and physical abuse that happens to aboriginal kids TODAY, mostly in their own homes, by their own families and family friends?
Virtue signalling about activist narratives about the past is easy, doing something about real live kids who are hurting TODAY is hard, but I suggest that you get started. Many of the rest of us already have, and you activists are not helping by always pointing the focus back to long-ago times, and making it easy for people to feel virtuous while doing absolutely nothing except helping to keep today’s problems hidden.
“So Barry, do you really care about the “rampant mistreatment, sexual, psychological and physical abuse” of inuit kids?”
Classic “whataboutism”, a variant of the tu quoque logical fallacy, which attempts to discredit an opponent’s position by charging hypocrisy without directly refuting or disproving the argument
-Provide an article where any significant percentage of “anomalies” are confirmed to actually be bodies, and specifically bodies of indigenous people, and specifically children. I have yet to see it.
-Provide an article where a significant portion of the deaths of said persons are from foul play on the part of white people. I have yet to see it.
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Until there is more information this is a lot of rhetoric and speculation. As the poster indicated, history has left us with many many unmarked graves because, well, wood rots. It tears at national unit to make unfounded and unproven allegations, which accordingly cannot ever be addressed or corrected. This is bad for everyone. Truth needs to come before reconciliation. Until there is truth to the speculation, there will be no reconciliation.
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And Barry, your nonsense quote: “Just because you don’t give a sheet about these Indigenous children…” is uncalled for. You should address, with facts, the legitimate concerns of the post raised rather than immediately resort to painting anyone asking legitimate questions with “racist”. Do you want a dialogue or a soapbox to spit speculation from? The latteris what “rhetoric” is. I think I know the answer of what you prefer but prove me wrong.
Read the Truth and Reconciliation Report then get back to me. It can be accessed online at no charge to you, dear.
Thanks for confirming that you don’t want a dialogue, just a soapbox.
That is some respect, thank you GG. I went to school with many of your friends from then Fort Chimo at CVC, so happy to have you as head of state.