Language, history and the new Governor General

EDITOR:

There is a bill currently before the Senate regarding language requirements for Governors General that would still allow Julie Payette to be appointed but not indigenous leader and current Governor General Mary May Simon.

Prime Minister Trudeau deserves credit for appointing Mary May Simon as Governor General, notwithstanding the criticism that he knew he would be facing. He recognized that as we all travel the road of understanding, it was time to seize the opportunity and appoint a Canadian of Indigenous heritage as Governor General.

And not just any Canadian, but someone who is highly qualified: a leader of her community for decades, a former Canadian Ambassador to Denmark, a recognized expert on Arctic issues; the list of her accomplishments goes on and on.

As to the language issue, I think we have to step back and ask ourselves if the policy of two official languages is a carryover from our colonial past. Prior to francophones or anglophones arriving in this part of North America, there were many indigenous languages already spoken here.

Is it not better to reflect on the true history of Canada and recognize that we have many indigenous languages as founding languages? As the body that represents regional and minority interests in this country, the Senate of Canada should show leadership by giving its current Official Languages Committee a revised mandate, with special emphasis on how it can protect these numerous Indigenous languages: a renamed committee that is focused on Founding and Official Languages. Let us embrace the New Canada. Let us embrace the future, rather than resisting change and fighting for the status quo. To that end, and in response to Call To Action Number Fifteen from the National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation, the Parliament of Canada passed the Indigenous Languages Act in 2019 which, among other things, established the Office of Commissioner of Indigenous Languages to promote, maintain and strengthen those languages, recognizing that restoring and strengthening indigenous languages is a fundamental part of reconciliation.

As an English-speaking Canadian, I would not object to a francophone who also spoke an indigenous language – and who promised to learn English –receiving a senior appointment. That is a price we pay to help correct historical wrongs.

We owe it to the Indigenous community to embrace the New Canada we are building together. The Old Canada thinking in the bill currently before Parliament is the result of the distorted history we all studied when we were in school, and the massive gap in our knowledge – of the Indigenous community, their customs and their society.

When I was attending school in Prince Edward Island, more time was spent studying the Treaty of Paris than the Peace and Friendship Treaty signed by the Mi’kmaq of Atlantic Canada with the Crown, outlining their rights. This absence of knowledge in Canadian society about our Indigenous history is slowly ending.

The appointment of Her Excellency Mary May Simon as Governor General is important both as symbol and substance. Mary May Simon is Governor General, and the Governor General is Indigenous, and I think that is wonderful. May there be many more appointments where Indigenous languages are given equal treatments to English and French. Percy Downe is a Senator from Charlottetown PEI