Indigenous leaders meet with Governor General during first official visit to Manitoba

Three Indigenous leaders were encouraged after discussing reconciliation and the need to confront residential school denialism with Gov. Gen. Louise Arbour, while she began her first official visit to Manitoba Wednesday.

Arbour had a private meeting with Grand Chief Garrison Settee of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak, which represents northern First Nations, Manitoba Inuit Association CEO Gayle Gruben and Manitoba Métis Federation cabinet minister Will Goodon at the legislature.

“The message is clear that truth and reconciliation is part of something that we, as all of Canada and the world, need to understand. It is not something that just ends,” Gruben said after the meeting.

“I am a residential school survivor, so I did inform (Arbour) that there are a lot of deniers, but there’s also a lot of people who support us.”

The Indigenous leaders said Arbour vowed to continue the work of her predecessor, Mary Simon, who was Canada’s first Inuk governor general. Simon made reconciliation a central focus of her mandate.

Arbour told a National Day for Truth and Reconciliation gathering in Ottawa on Sept. 30 that Canada must “confront all forms of denialism that persist” and commit to ensure injustices are never repeated.

“She absolutely understands the emotions, the hurt that is caused when people bring (denialism) up, because you’re reliving the trauma,” Goodon, the MMF’s minister for identity protection and inter-Indigenous relations, said of survivors and their families. “It might be intergenerational, but you’re still reliving that trauma.”

Settee was pleased Arbour was open to conversations about reconciliation and denialism, among other matters, in the meeting.

“Like we’ve always said, without truth there can be no reconciliation. Some of the truths we are experiencing is there are people out there that deny residential schools existed, they deny that people died there,” he said.

“For us that know better, it hits us in a very deep way because we’ve been doing this work for many years, trying to educate Canada on what really happened at these schools, but also uncovering truths that they do not want to hear.”

Montreal-born Arbour, 79, is a former Supreme Court of Canada justice who was a chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. She was the United Nations’ high commissioner for human rights from 2004 to 2008.

Arbour, a francophone, began her three-day visit with a welcoming ceremony with military honours in front of the Legislative Building’s grand staircase. Members of 17 Wing Winnipeg and 38 Canadian Bridgade Group were involved in the ceremony.

She also had private meetings with Lt.-Gov. Anita Neville, Premier Wab Kinew and provincial Chief Justice Marianne Rivoalen. Arbour was not made available to speak to reporters.

Selected by Prime Minister Mark Carney, she was installed as Canada’s commander-in-chief and representative of the country’s head of state, King Charles, on June 8. The former jurist is Canada’s 31st Governor General.

Her visit will continue Thursday at Le Musée de Saint-Boniface Museum, where she will participate in an interactive activity related to the Louis Riel collection, an itinerary said.

She is scheduled to visit the Bear Clan Patrol and Elmwood Community Resource Centre before presiding over a Canadian honours ceremony where three Manitobans will be recognized.

Friday’s final leg will take her to Gimli, where she will learn about Manitoba’s Icelandic-Canadian heritage and meet with the 182 GM Stefnufastur Royal Canadian Air Cadet Squadron.

Arbour’s official visit to Ontario last month took her to Toronto, where the provincial seat of power is located. It came after she had to postpone a visit to Newfoundland and Labrador to represent Canada at the funeral of King Harald V of Norway.

The Governor General carries out constitutional, military and ceremonial duties. Their official residence and workplace is Rideau Hall in Ottawa.

Their constitutional duties include swearing the prime minister, federal cabinet ministers and chief justice of Canada into office, dissolving Parliament and granting royal assent to bills.

chris.kitching@winnipegfreepress.com