TORONTO — Diplomat Mary Simon, a longtime advocate for Inuit rights and culture, will be Canada’s next governor general, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday.
“Today, after 154 years, our country takes a historic step,” Trudeau said at a news conference at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec. “I cannot think of a better person to meet the moment.”
Simon, who began her remarks in Inuktitut before switching to English, said her appointment comes at “an especially reflective and dynamic time in our shared history.”
“I can confidently say that my appointment is a historic and inspirational moment for Canada,” she said, “and an important step forward on the long path towards reconciliation.”
Simon replaces Julie Payette, a former chief astronaut for the Canadian Space Agency, who resigned in January amid allegations of workplace harassment and bullying that raised questions about the government’s vetting process for the role. An external review found that Payette had presided over a “toxic” workplace marked by “yelling, screaming, aggressive conduct, demeaning comments and public humiliations.”
Canada’s governor general is appointed by the queen on the recommendation of the prime minister, though in practice the monarch rarely quibbles with the pick. An advisory group submitted a shortlist of possible candidates to Trudeau. He said the list was whittled down from roughly 100 possible candidates.
Simon was born in Nunavik in northern Quebec to an Inuk mother and a non-Indigenous father who managed the local Hudson’s Bay Co. trading post. She said she spent many months of her adolescence living a traditional Inuk lifestyle: camping and living on the land, as well as hunting, fishing and gathering food.
That, she said, allowed her “to be a bridge between the different lived realities that together make up the tapestry of Canada.”
Simon began her career in the 1970s as a radio broadcaster for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. in the country’s north. She later held leadership positions with several Inuit groups, including president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, a national organization. In those roles, she helped negotiate the first land-claims agreement in Canada.
Simon also served as Canada’s ambassador for circumpolar affairs, helping to establish the Arctic Council, and as ambassador to Denmark. She was the first Inuk to hold a Canadian ambassadorial post.
Governors general represent Elizabeth, who is queen of Canada and its head of state. They serve as commander in chief of Canada; accept diplomats’ credentials; swear in cabinet ministers and prime ministers; grant royal assent to bills so that they become law; and read the Speech from the Throne, in which the government, headed by the prime minister, outlines its agenda for a new session of Parliament.
Governors general also decide whether to approve a prime minister’s request to dissolve Parliament, which triggers a new election.
The appointment is likely to add to the mounting speculation that Trudeau, currently leading a minority government, is eyeing a federal election this year. Several polls show his Liberal Party on track to win a majority of seats in the House of Commons.
Simon and Trudeau said they had not spoken about a possible election.
It is tradition for the role of governor general to alternate between Anglophones and Francophones. Simon, who is fluent in Inuktitut and English, said she is “deeply committed” to learning French. She said she was denied an opportunity to learn the language in day schools run by the federal government in Nunavik.
Calls to appoint an Indigenous governor general swirled after Payette’s resignation. Some felt such a move would be a token gesture and not a meaningful step toward reconciliation.
“It would be a shocking ask of any Indigenous person,” wrote Tanya Talaga, a columnist for the Globe and Mail, “considering that the monarchy has spent centuries looking the other way while crimes of colonialism were being committed.”
Simon said she did not see a conflict between her Indigenous identity and her new job representing the monarch in Canada.
“I do understand, as an Indigenous person, that there is pain and suffering across our nation, and … we need to start to fully recognize and memorialize and come to terms with the atrocities of our collective past,” she said. “But when I was asked whether I would take on this important role, I was very excited, and I felt that this was a position that would help Canadians together with Indigenous peoples.”
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