From Nunavik to Rideau Hall: How Mary Simon's home will shape her future as Governor General
In the Inuit region of Nunavik in northern Quebec, the family and friends of Canada’s newest Governor General, Mary Simon, swell with pride as they reflect on how far she’s come.
The former ambassador and prominent Inuk leader, who was installed as the country’s 30th Governor General on Monday, was born in one of the area’s tiny villages, Kangiqsualujjuaq, located on the east coast of Ungava Bay.
It’s a place where the treeline fades into tundra, the huskies roam free, and the stunted vegetation remind of the perseverance it takes to survive.
“The land teaches a lot. The land teaches you to respect. The land teaches you to be human to everyone,” Annie Popert, Simon’s sister, explained to CTV News.
Popert said her sister learned some of her most profound and enduring lessons from the land, as she fondly recalled them picking berries together as children in the summertime.
Those lessons appeared to serve her well as she navigated the trials of attending a federal day school in Kujjuak – a 40-minute flight southwest of her birthplace – in the 1950s.
“With Mary… we always knew that something perhaps special would come about,” Popert shared.
Simon’s strength of character was tested, and perhaps forged, during those years at a government-run school where Indigenous children were forced to speak English as their Inuit culture was systematically washed away.
Popert remembers her brother Johnny and his friends arriving late for school and one of the teachers would shoot a BB gun at their legs as punishment.
“That was pretty awful to watch,” she said.
Dennis Lock, Popert’s son and Simon’s nephew, shared his thoughts on what his aunt’s new role as Governor General means to his people.
“It’s what the country needs right now,” he said, particularly in light of the recent discoveries of the remains of hundreds of Indigenous children who died attending residential schools across Canada.
“With everything that’s been going on with all the kids they’ve been finding...” Lock said before trailing off. “I’m getting emotional.”
As Lock steers a boat down the Koksoak River, the land where the “old Kujjuak” is located is visible. That’s where Simon and Popert’s family used to live, until after the Second World War, when the Americans turned over an airbase to the Canadian government and the community resettled there.
Returning to Kujjuak’s former location, however, is how Popert reconnects with her childhood.
“We lived here for a good number of years when my father was transferred from the Kangiqsualujjuaq outpost camp,” she said.
Popert and Simon’s father, a white man who spoke Inuktitut, ran a Hudson Bay Company trading post, which is how he met their mother, an Inuk woman. The family moved around Nunavik when the children were young before settling on Kujjuak.
Willy Etok’s father used to trade fur with Simon’s father at the Kangiqsualujjuaq outpost camp. He said Simon will make a difference in her new role as Governor General and put their people on the map.
David Annanack, the mayor of Kangiqsualujjuaq who grew up with Simon, is of the same opinion.
“Yes it will for all the First Nations. It will help them to create their future because we’ve been put aside too long,” he said.
As Popert tours her old homeland, she’s reminded of her late grandmother and the stories she would tell of overcoming adversity.
“I think the resiliency is in me and my siblings and Mary, but it’s in all Inuit,” she said.
It’s that spirit that will guide Simon in her new position, according to Popert, and help her to achieve a brighter tomorrow for generations of Indigenous Peoples to come.
IN DEPTH
'One of the greatest': Former prime minister Brian Mulroney commemorated at state funeral
Prominent Canadians, political leaders, and family members remembered former prime minister and Progressive Conservative titan Brian Mulroney as an ambitious and compassionate nation-builder at his state funeral on Saturday.
Trudeau, key election players to testify at foreign interference hearings. What you need to know
The public hearings portion of the federal inquiry into foreign interference in Canadian elections and democratic institutions are picking back up this week. Here's what you need to know.
Who is supporting, opposing new online harms bill?
Now that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's sweeping online harms legislation is before Parliament, allowing key stakeholders, major platforms, and Canadians with direct personal experience with abuse to dig in and see what's being proposed, reaction is streaming in. CTVNews.ca has rounded up reaction, and here's how Bill C-63 is going over.
As Poilievre sides with Smith on trans restrictions, former Conservative candidate says he's 'playing with fire'
Siding with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on her proposed restrictions on transgender youth, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre confirmed Wednesday that he is against trans and non-binary minors using puberty blockers.
TREND LINE What Nanos' tracking tells us about Canadians' mood, party preference heading into 2024
Heading into a new year, Canadians aren't feeling overly optimistic about the direction the country is heading, with the number of voters indicating negative views about the federal government's performance at the highest in a decade, national tracking from Nanos Research shows.
Opinion
opinion Don Martin: The doctor Trudeau dumped has a prescription for better health care
Political columnist Don Martin sat down with former federal health minister Jane Philpott, who's on a crusade to help fix Canada's broken health care system, and who declined to take any shots at the prime minister who dumped her from caucus.
opinion Don Martin: Trudeau's seeking shelter from the housing storm he helped create
While Justin Trudeau's recent housing announcements are generally drawing praise from experts, political columnist Don Martin argues there shouldn’t be any standing ovations for a prime minister who helped caused the problem in the first place.
opinion Don Martin: Poilievre has the field to himself as he races across the country to big crowds
It came to pass on Thursday evening that the confidentially predictable failure of the Official Opposition non-confidence motion went down with 204 Liberal, BQ and NDP nays to 116 Conservative yeas. But forcing Canada into a federal election campaign was never the point.
opinion Don Martin: How a beer break may have doomed the carbon tax hike
When the Liberal government chopped a planned beer excise tax hike to two per cent from 4.5 per cent and froze future increases until after the next election, says political columnist Don Martin, it almost guaranteed a similar carbon tax move in the offing.
opinion Don Martin: Pierre Poilievre's road to apparent victory will soon start to get rougher
Pierre Poilievre and his Conservatives appear to be on cruise control to a rendezvous with the leader's prime ministerial ambition, but in his latest column for CTVNews.ca, Don Martin questions whether the Conservative leader may be peaking too soon.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Nine suspects arrested in $24M gold heist at Toronto Pearson International Airport: Peel police
Nine people have been arrested in connection with the gold heist at Pearson International Airport last year, Peel Regional Police said Wednesday.
Some of the winners and losers in the 2024 federal budget
With a variety of fiscal and policy measures announced in the federal budget, winners include small businesses and fintech companies while losers include the tobacco industry and Canadian pension funds.
Gas prices across Ontario expected to climb to levels not seen since 2022, analyst says
Ontario is going to see a big jump at the pumps later this week as gas prices in the province hit levels not seen in nearly two years, according to one industry analyst.
O.J. Simpson was chilling with a beer on a couch before Easter, lawyer says. 2 weeks later he was dead
O.J. Simpson's last robust discussion with his longtime lawyer was just before Easter, at the country club home Simpson leased southwest of the Las Vegas Strip. About a week later, on April 5, a doctor said Simpson was 'transitioning.'
Father of boy accused of stabbing 2 Australian clerics saw no signs of extremism, Muslim leader says
The father of a boy accused of stabbing two Christian clerics in Australia saw no signs of his son’s extremism, a Muslim community leader said on Wednesday as police began arresting suspected rioters who besieged a Sydney church demanding revenge.
500 Newfoundlanders wound up on the same cruise and it turned into a rocking kitchen party
A Celebrity Apex cruise to the Caribbean this month turned into a rocking Newfoundland kitchen party when hundreds of people from Canada's easternmost province happened to be booked on the same ship.
Liberals must now sell a budget they say will help younger Canadians catch up
It's now up to the federal Liberal government to sell a spending plan it says will help younger Canadians catch up to their elders.
Ontario woman out $30K after investing in mortgage company accused of being unlicensed
An Ontario nurse is fighting to recover tens of thousands of dollars in savings she invested in a mortgage company that has since been accused of operating without a licence.
Canada is expected to win 22 medals at the Paris Olympics
Canada is expected to win a total of 22 medals, including six gold, at the Paris Summer Olympics, which open on July 26.
Local Spotlight
Marmot in the city: New resident of North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale a 'rock star rodent'
When Les Robertson was walking home from the gym in North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale neighbourhood three weeks ago, he did a double take. Standing near a burrow it had dug in a vacant lot near East 1st Street and St. Georges Avenue was a yellow-bellied marmot.
Relocated seal returns to Greater Victoria after 'astonishing' 204-kilometre trek
A moulting seal who was relocated after drawing daily crowds of onlookers in Greater Victoria has made a surprise return, after what officials described as an 'astonishing' six-day journey.
Ottawa barber shop steps away from Parliament Hill marks 100 years in business
Just steps from Parliament Hill is a barber shop that for the last 100 years has catered to everyone from prime ministers to tourists.
'It was a special game': Edmonton pinball player celebrates high score and shout out from game designer
A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high.
'How much time do we have?': 'Contamination' in Prairie groundwater identified
A compound used to treat sour gas that's been linked to fertility issues in cattle has been found throughout groundwater in the Prairies, according to a new study.
'Why not do it together?': Lifelong friends take part in 'brosectomy' in Vancouver
While many people choose to keep their medical appointments private, four longtime friends decided to undergo vasectomies as a group in B.C.'s Lower Mainland.
Grain-gobbling bears spark 'no stopping' zone in Banff National Park
A popular highway in Alberta's Banff National Park now has a 'no stopping zone' to help protect two bears.
Deer family appears to accept B.C. man as one of their own
B.C. resident Robert Conrad spent thousands of hours on Crown land developing an unusual bond with deer.
Doorbell video shows family of black bears scared off by dog in Sudbury, Ont.
A Sudbury woman said her husband was bringing the recycling out to the curb Wednesday night when he had to make a 'mad dash' inside after seeing a bear.