Adeline Webber named new commissioner of the Yukon
Adeline Webber, a member of the Teslin Tlingit Coun‐ cil and longtime advocate for Indigenous rights, has been named the new com‐ missioner of the Yukon.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the ap‐ pointment on Wednesday morning, saying in a news re‐ lease that Webber "has a re‐ markable understanding of the unique needs of Indige‐ nous Peoples and all Yukon‐ ers."
"I am confident that she will continue to serve them well in her new role," Trudeau said.
Webber will suc‐ ceed Angélique Bernard, whose five-year term as the territory's commissioner ends Wednesday.
Webber was born and raised in Whitehorse and spent much of her career working for the federal civil service, as the Yukon district director for the Public Service
Commission of Canada.
Since 2018 she has been the Yukon administrator, a role that serves as a stand-in for the commissioner when that person is unable to per‐ form their duties.
The Yukon commissioner is appointed by the federal government and serves as the top level of federal rep‐ resentation in the territory. The commissioner is not the head of government in the Yukon.
The role is largely ceremo‐ nial, involving attendance at official functions and events, and handing out honours and awards such as the Order of Yukon. The commissioner is akin to the lieutenant gov‐ ernor of a province.
The commissioner also de‐ livers the Speech from the Throne at the beginning of each legislative session, swears in MLAs, and provides assent to bills passed by the legislature allowing them to become law.
In announcing the ap‐ pointment, Trudeau cited Webber's lifetime of work ad‐ vocating for Indigenous peo‐ ple and other Yukoners.
Indigenous women's rights have been a focus of much of Webber's work over the years, through her in‐ volvement with organizations such as the Whitehorse Abo‐ riginal Women's Circle.
Last year, Webber was part of the Assembly of First Nations delegation that met Pope Francis in Rome, and heard his apology for the church's role in the residential school system in Canada.
She is also the chair of the Yukon Residential Schools Missing Children working group, which has been lead‐ ing efforts in recent years to search for unmarked graves at former residential school sites in Yukon.
Webber has been appoint‐ ed to a five-year term as Yukon commissioner.
Bernard reflects on her term
Speaking to CBC News on Wednesday morning before Webber's appointment was announced, Bernard was feel‐ ing emotional about the end of her own term as the terri‐ tory's first francophone com‐ missioner.
She said one of the things she enjoyed most about the job was meeting so many people.
"I like to say that I'm an in‐ trovert at heart, so when I started I thought that was go‐ ing to be my hardest part. But it's something that I've really grown into, as the more you do it, the more it becomes comfortable," she said.
Bernard is also proud of some of the things she intro‐ duced while serving in the role, including the Borealis Prize for literature and the territory's first "story laure‐ ate." She also helped convert the upstairs of Taylor House — the commissioner's of‐ fice in Whitehorse — from an area largely used for storage, to a sort of museum with por‐ traits, artifacts and topical ex‐ hibits.
She also believes she's achieved one of her main goals to help "demystify" the role, and help Yukoners see and understand what the commissioner does. Bernard described a recent encounter while she was out walking her dog in White‐ horse and she heard a young child holler her name from across the street.
"It was like, 'we were at your office yesterday!'" Bernard recalled.
"So I'm like, if a little fiveyear-old knows my name and knows the commissioner, I've done my job."