150+ Canadians Day 114: Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Image: Canadian Stamp News

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier contributes to peace by serving as a reminder to the tragedy of war and how necessary it is to maintain peace so that others don’t die in war.

The Canadian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is located before the National War Memorial in Confederation Square across from the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa.

The culmination of a project begun by the Royal Canadian Legion, the tomb was added to the war memorial in 2000 as part of the Canada Millennium Partnership Programme and holds the remains of an unidentified Canadian soldier who died in France during World War I. The soldier was selected from a cemetery in the vicinity of Vimy, the site of a famous Canadian battle where Canadian troops fought as a combined force.

The remains of the soldier buried there were exhumed on the morning of May 16, 2000, and the coffin was flown in a Canadian Forces aircraft to Ottawa on May 25, accompanied by a 45-person guard of honour, a chaplain, Royal Canadian Legion veterans, and two representatives of Canadian youth. In Ottawa, the Unknown Soldier lay in state for three days in the Hall of Honour in the Centre Block of Parliament Hill.

On the afternoon of May 28, the body of the Unknown Soldier was transported to the National War Memorial on a horse-drawn Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) gun carriage. The Governor General, and the Prime Minister, as well as veterans, Canadian Forces personnel, and members of the RCMP were in the funeral cortege. Then, with full military honours before a crowd of 20,000, the body, in a silver maple casket, was re-interred in a sarcophagus in front of the war memorial. Legionnaires placed a handful of soil from each of Canada’s provinces and territories, as well as from the soldier’s former grave site, on the casket before the tomb was sealed.

The tomb is intended to honour the approximately 116,000 Canadians who died in combat, as well as all members of the Canadian Armed Forces—in all branches—who died or may die in all conflicts, past, present, and future.

The tomb has become a focal point at all commemorative events at the National War Memorial.

The original headstone of the Unknown Soldier is the sole artifact and the focal point of Memorial Hall in the Canadian War Museum. The hall was designed in such a way that sunlight will only frame the headstone once each year on the 11th of November at 11:00 am.

At the former burial site of the Unknown Soldier, a grave marker similar to the other headstones in the Cabaret-Rouge Cemetery was placed at the now-empty grave. It is inscribed with these words in both French and English:

THE FORMER GRAVE OF AN
UNKNOWN CANADIAN SOLDIER
OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR.
HIS REMAINS WERE REMOVED
ON 25 MAY 2000 AND NOW
LIE INTERRED AT THE
NATIONAL WAR MEMORIAL
IN OTTAWA CANADA.

The Royal Canadian Legion leadership pronounced that the tomb deserved a military or police guard as a symbol of respect and to protect it from vandalism and desecration. These demands were brought into focus on the night of July 1, 2006, when Dr. Michael Pilon, a retired Canadian Forces major, photographed three young men urinating on the war memorial shortly after the annual Canada Day fireworks show over nearby Parliament Hill. In the summer of 2007, the sentry programme was instituted.

On October 22, 2014, a gunman armed with a rifle shot at the sentries on duty at the tomb, fatally wounding Corporal Nathan Cirillo of The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders of Canada (Princess Louise), before proceeding across the street and into the Centre Block on nearby Parliament Hill.. There, the gunman was killed in a firefight by then Sergeant-at-Arms of the

House of Commons.  Truly a reminder of the tragedy of violence.


 

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150+ Canadians Day 113: PeaceQuest Regina

PeaceQuest Regina contributes to peace by strengthening peace & disarmament culture in Saskatchewan.

PeaceQuest Regina took up the torch early on in PeaceQuest’s existence in 2013. One of our few affiliate groups, PQ Regina has tirelessly worked to support and reinforce the existing peace movement in Saskatchewan. The following profile is a personal account of everything PQ Regina has accomplished to date. 


by Florence Stratton

PEACEQUEST REGINA 

Shortly after Jamie Swift’s visit to Regina in 2014, PeaceQuest Regina was established as an affiliate of PeaceQuest. Our goal is to promote a culture of peace in the midst of all the violence promoted by the Canadian state. We are grounded in the knowledge that there will be no peace without justice.

For our membership, we draw on already existing peace groups, social justice movements, and members of local faith communities. We operate on a consensus basis and do our best to minimize hierarchy, with different people taking the lead on different projects.

How does PeaceQuest Regina go about fulfilling its mandate? It’s been a very busy three years since our founding. Here are some of the highlights.

  1. CAMPAIGN AGAINST MILITARY TRAINING IN REGINA HIGHSCHOOLS

No sooner had PeaceQuest Regina been founded than military training was added to the curriculum of Regina high schools. PeaceQuest Regina entered into partnership with three other Saskatchewan peace groups to organize against the program.

The campaign included a workshop, a petition (over 2,000 signatures), the distribution of pamphlets (over 400), and letters to the editor (at least 19). The campaign also garnered considerable local, as well as national, media attention.

In early 2016, the military training program was cancelled for that year, due to “low enrollment. (It hasn’t been reinstated since.) While Saskatchewan peace groups would like to take a wee bit of the credit for the program’s cancellation, the majority of it must go to Regina high school students who, despite a $2,000 “incentive” to take the program, refused to do so.

  1. WALK FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE

For the past three years, PeaceQuest Regina has led a walk for peace and justice as part of Regina Jane’s Walks. Stops on these walks have included: 

  1. John A. Macdonald Statue, Victoria Park: Macdonald’s dual legacy—nation-builder and racist and genocidal policies against Indigenous peoples. 
  2. The Cenotaph, Victoria Park: The contrast between the Harper government’s claim that Canada was forged in the battles of World War 1 and the reality: Canada was almost destroyed by that war. 
  3. Hotel Saskatchewan: The hotel’s refusal in the 1950s to rent rooms to Paul Robson and Marion Anderson.
  4. The Assiniboia Club: The Club’s refusal to admit Jewish men and all women as members up until the 1970s. 
  5. The Statue of Gandhi, City Hall: Gandhi’s philosophy of active non-violence and his belief in the inseparability of peace from justice. 

3. PEACE GARDEN

In the spring of 2015, PeaceQuest Regina entered into a wonderful partnership with Knox-Met United Church in the establishment of a Peace Garden. In addition to annuals, perennials, and flowering shrubs, the garden features a peace symbol made out of 100 year old bricks from Connaught School which was demolished in 2014. An artistic metal peace sign is also embedded in the garden and there is a little plaque on the ground that reads “Let there be peace on earth.”

This year, we have working with us a certified Organic Master Gardener, under whose guidance the garden is being opened up to more sunlight and greater visibility.

There are plans to rededicate the Peace Garden, once it is in full bloom this summer. A plaque will be affixed to the brick peace sign, noting the involvement of PeaceQuest Regina and Knox-Met in the Peace Garden project, as well as the origin of the bricks.

  1. PEACE FLAG

For the past three years, the City of Regina has, at the request of PeaceQuest Regina, raised the peace flag in front of City Hall for UN International Day of Peace. In conjunction with the raising of the flag, there is always a peace program, with a prayer and a song for peace. Attendees usually include some of the City Councillors. 

  1. PEACE RALLIES

In the few short years of our existence, we have organized four peace rallies, the most recent being a Vimy Vigil for Peace which coincided with the official Vimy 100 celebrations.

  1. WRITE FOR PEACE

For the past two years, we have sponsored an event we call “Write For Peace, Peace is Right.” Modelled on Amnesty International’s Write For Rights, it involves people gathering together to write letters to government officials calling for peace and justice.

Last year, we wrote 50 letters, one of which caught the attention of a City Councillor who agreed to work with us to get Regina to join the Mayors For Peace movement.

  1. PEACE SYMBOL CONTEST

PeaceQuest Regina has for the past two years sponsored a peace symbol contest.

  • Create a peace symbol on any surface: a sidewalk using chalk, a garden using flowers or rocks, a cookie using icing—you get the idea.
  • Take a photo of your peace symbol.
  • Email the photo to makingpeace@sasktel.net

All who enter receive a peace gift and become eligible to win a major peace prize. We had 17 entries in the 2016 contest.

The deadline for entering the 2017 contest is August 31. We look forward to entries from across Canada and around the world!

  1. IN ADDITION to the above, we have, in our short existence:
  • Launched a postcard campaign calling for peace in Iraq and Syria
  • Sponsored an Exhibition of Hibakusha Worldwide Posters
  • Sponsored the screening of a number of anti-war films
  • Tabled at a number of events and conferences
  • Distributed 100s of peace pamphlets at the Regina Folk Festival
  • Organized public discussions of war and peace issues

As for future plans, it will in part be more of the same: More rallies for peace. More walks for peace and justice. More peace symbol contests. And so on. We also plan to develop new projects.

We are grateful for the support of PeaceQuest in our endeavors.


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150+ Canadians Day 112: Bill & Jim Harding

Image: Jim Harding

Jim Harding and his father, Bill Harding, contributed to peace by opposing uranium mining for weapons.

Bill Harding was born in 1911 in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. He held a BSc in Agriculture form the Manitoba Agricultural College in Winnipeg. Harding’s career began at the Swift Current Experimental Station (1934-1936) and the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Act Administration (PFRA) (1937-1941), where he performed agricultural extension work and field husbandry research.

Bill Harding had an extensive career as an agriculturalist, civil servant, international development worker, and community activist.

In 1942 he moved to Calgary, Alberta, where he was employed as an administrator and accountant for the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede. Returning to Saskatchewan in 1945, he became the Acting Director of the Adult Education division of the Saskatchewan government, established the Radio and Information Division of Department of Agriculture; and served on the Saskatchewan Royal Commission on Agriculture and Rural Life, among others.

From 1952-1957 he served as Secretary to the Saskatchewan Royal Commission on Agriculture and Rural Life, and was Secretary of the Saskatchewan Local Government Continuing Committee and Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Centre for Community Studies from 1958-1961.

In 9161 he moved into international development, working around the world with the United Nations. He eventually became Director of the UN Development Program Division of Information and Director of Program Policy in New York in 1974.

In retirement he remained active in community development, health and education and became active with groups opposing the expansion of uranium mining in Saskatchewan.  He participated in inquires and helping to organize the First International Uranium Congress held in 1988. He was a charter member of the Regina Group for a Non-Nuclear Society. He participated in the Cliff Lake and Warman Refinery inquires, and traveled the province attending public meetings sponsored by the United Church, the Interchurch Uranium Committee, and the Saskatchewan Environmental Society.

Harding further participated in the environmental movement as a member of the Saskatchewan Ecological Alliance and the Regina Greens.  Bill Harding also involved himself in provincial politics, working for the CCF at the constituency and provincial levels. He served on the Provincial Council Executive at various times, was chair of the Provincial Organizing and Education Committee, and was involved in Group Training and Farmer-Laborer-Teacher Institutes during the 1940s and 1950s. He was Director of Education and Organization for the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party prior to the 1964 election.

Jim, Bill’s son is a retired professor of justice studies at the University of Regina. He is a founding member of the Regina Group for a Non-Nuclear Society and was director of research for Prairie Justice Research at the University of Regina, where he headed up the Uranium Inquiries Project. Jim also acted as consultant to the NFB award-winning film Uranium.

Inspired by his father, Jim is also a long time peace and environmental activist. He has been involved with anti-nuclear research and activism in his home province for several decades. For two decades Jim was a key member of the School of Human Justice at the University of Regina, where he acted as director in the early 1990s. More recently Jim served for one term as Regina’s inner-city councilor. He now lives, gardens and writes on the Crows Nest Ecology Preserve in the Qu’Appelle Valley.

Jim authored a number of books; including, “Canada’s Deadly Secret: Saskatchewan Uranium and the Global Nuclear System”.

“There’s a reason why we’re passionate about this, and it’s because we realize our interdependence is real. This is not a CBC News report. It’s actually happening, so when those depleted uranium bullets were blasted into Iraq in the shock and awe and the uranium aerosols went up into the atmosphere and apparently went as far as England, but mostly went into the lungs of fighters and civilians on land there’s a little bit of Saskatchewan right there going into them.” 

You can read an in-depth interview with Jim Harding on Aurora Online.


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150+ Canadians Day 111: Dr. Roy Akira Miki

Image: University of Winnipeg, courtesy of Dr. Miki

Roy Akira Miki, contributed to peace by writing and speaking out against injustice particularly the internment of Japanese Canadians.

Dr. Miki is a distinguished scholar and teacher, one of Canada’s finest poets and authors, and a passionate advocate for social justice. Born on a sugar beet farm in Manitoba, where his Japanese Canadian parents were interned during the Second World War, Dr. Miki’s early experiences with discrimination fueled his drive to express his ideas and emotions.

Dr. Miki’s human rights activism has helped change the shape of Canadian society.

A 2002 collection of his poems, “Surrender”, received the Governor General’s Award for Poetry.

Dr. Miki’s writing and voluntary contributions were recognized in 2006 with three major awards: the Order of Canada, Gandhi Peace Award and Thakore Visiting Scholar Award. In his book Redress: Inside the Japanese Canadian Call for Justice, author Dr. Miki notes how NDP Leader Ed Broadbent was brought to tears as he spoke at the 1988 apology in the House of Commons; his first wife was Japanese Canadian.

He is also a recipient of Simon Fraser University’s Nora and Ted Sterling Prize in Support of Controversy.


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150+ Canadians Day 110: Rosemary McCarney

Image: Rosemary speaking at the 2016 Geneva Summit. (Youtube)

Rosemary McCarney contributed to peace through international development initiatives to end gender inequality and children out of poverty.

Founded in 1937, Plan International is one of the world’s oldest and largest international development agencies, working in partnership with millions of people around the world to end global poverty. Not for profit, independent and inclusive of all faiths and cultures, it has only one agenda: to improve the lives of children.

McCarney has had an extensive international career in law, business and the not-for-profit sector, having worked in more than 100 countries. Prior to joining Plan Canada, she was the Executive Director of Street Kids International.

An author of children’s books, she wrote “Every Day is Malala Day,” a book for middle grade readers.  Rosemary helped craft  the global campaign “Because I am a Girl” and worked to declare October 11th the International Day of the Girl. – a day each year to recognize and advocate for girls’ rights globally.

Today McCarney is the Canadian Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations and the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.

“This is an opportunity to work with other like-minded nation states on the biggest issues of our day,” said McCarney, adding she feels she’ll be able to effect even more change as most major unilateral organizations are headquartered in Geneva.


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150+ Canadians Day 109: National & Provincial Parks

Image: Esther Lee on flickr

National and Provincial Parks contribute to bring an appreciation of natural beauty to Canadians and international visitors.

“The breathtaking scenery and inspiring natural surroundings in national parks provide the perfect setting for tuning into nature, learning about it, appreciating it, respecting it and pledging to protect it. Each national park is a haven for the human spirit.”  www.pc.gc.ca

Canada’s parks are protected areas of wide ranging biodiversity and natural beauty. National parks are protected under the federal Canada National Parks Act from all forms of industrial development including mining, forestry, oil and natural gas exploration and development, and hydro-electric development, as well as commercially extractive activities such as sport hunting (although sport fishing is allowed).

There are now 40 national parks and reserves and over 1200 Provincial parks, as well as hundreds of ecological reserves, wilderness areas, conservation authority lands, and recreational area. Canada’s national park system is part of a global network of more than 100,000 protected areas in 120 countries and covering about 12 per cent of the planet’s surface.

As in the case of national parks, provincial parks originated at the end of the 19th century as a result of growing concern among civil servants, politicians and the general public about the depletion of natural resources, the degradation of scenic places and the need for an ever-expanding and increasingly urbanized population to have opportunities for recreation in a natural setting. Provincial parks are administered by provincial government agencies which are commonly part of departments dealing with natural resources, tourism or culture.

The total area of Canada’s national parks is more than 300,000 km2, an area over 2.2 times larger than the three Maritime Provinces, and equal to over three per cent of Canada’s landmass. The national parks range in size from Wood Buffalo, the equivalent of Switzerland, to Point Pelee, which, for its small size of 15 km2, is biologically rich.

National park reserves are established in areas affected by unresolved land claims and accepted by the Government of Canada for negotiation. These areas are designated to become national parks, but the final boundaries and other terms will only be finalized upon the resolution of the land claims. Working with Indigenous communities is key to establishing new national parks.

In 2017, all national parks and historic sites in Canada will be free to Canadians as a celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday.


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150+ Canadians Day 108: Rabbi Arthur Bielfeld

Image: Mazon Canada

Rabbi Arthur Bielfeld contributes to peace by working passionately to improve conditions for those living in poor social conditions.

“What Canada has going for it is potentially a breadth of perspectives that makes it an interesting and dynamic place. My greatest hope is that we will retain that outlook and not return to some more narrowly focused perspective, where either through law or through attitude we discourage that true multicultural spirit.”

Rabbi Bielfeld emigrated from Massachusetts to Toronto, becoming a Canadian citizen in 1968. He served as the spiritual leader of Reform Temple Emanu-El for 33 years, retiring in 2001.

He identifies his formative influences as his four notable female friends, Barbara Frum, Jane Jacobs, Margaret Lawrence and June Callwood, who taught him not just what it meant to be Canadian, but “what it meant to be a human being.”

Bielfeld believed that it was unconscionable that governments in Canada, one of the richest countries in the world, were not doing more to combat poverty affecting individuals and families. He took action to help those he could. Bielfeld founded the Leo Baeck Day School; he also served as co-chair of the June Callwood Coalition to End Child Poverty, past chairman of the Board of the Energy Probe Research Foundation, founding chair of MAZON Canada, a Jewish response to Hunger, founding chair of the Campaign Against Child Poverty, past board member of the North York Committee on Community, Race and Ethnic Relations, past board member of the United Way of Greater Toronto, and past board member of the Casey House Hospice which provides support for those with HIV/AIDS. 


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150+ Canadians Day 107: Gardening Professionals

Image: Robthepiper on Wikipedia

Canada’s Gardening professionals provide inspiration and elbow grease to make public spaces beautiful.

“Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul.”   –  Luther Burbank

Professional gardening gurus such as Lois Hole (former Lieutenant Governor of Alberta) of Alberta and Ed Lawrence and Mark Cullen of Ontario and their peers have assisted countless people with finding peace and enjoyment through gardening throughout Canada.

Lois Hole and her husband Ted helped countless Canadians to garden in cold climates. Their Hole’s Greenhouses & Gardens Ltd. in St. Albert, Alberta, Lois’s countless gardening books and “can do” attitude brought gardening to many Albertans who otherwise wouldn’t have broken ground. Hole’s opened in 1979 and remained one of Western Canada’s largest retail greenhouse stores until it closed in early 2011 when the Hole family moved the operation to their new site on the edge of Lois Hole Centennial Provincial Park, and opened the Enjoy Centre. She was a thought after and humorous speaker, who always had a good gardening anecdote at the ready.

Lois held many honourary degrees and became a member of the Order of Canada in 1999. She died in 2005.

Ed (“40 parts water, 1 part soap”) Lawrence is a retired head gardener to six Canadian Governors General and Prime Ministers. During his 30 years of outstanding achievement in the field of Canadian horticulture, Ed’s responsibilities included not only the oversight of the 85 acre historic grounds and greenhouses of Rideau Hall, but of all six official residences under the authority of the National Capital Commission, including those of the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition.

For more than two decades his phone-in radio show for CBC Ontario has been tremendously popular, even with people who don’t garden.  Ed has written gardening columns for newspapers throughout the Ottawa Valley and a weekly column for the Toronto edition of the newspaper, The Globe and Mail. His keen interest in the experience of Canadian gardeners is unwavering, and every year his knowledge helps countless Canadians get into the garden.

In 1988 he won Landscape Ontario’s Garden Communicators’ Award for his broadcasting work and in 2000, Ed was the recipient of the prestigious Award of Merit from the Ontario Horticultural Association.

Gardening advocate, Mark Cullen reaches over two million Canadians every week through print and radio outlets. He delivers a message that is compelling, fun, informative, inspirational – all based on his sustainable approach to gardening.

Mark writes a ‘gardening feature’ column for the Toronto Star, and his weekly garden/environment column appears in more than 30 newspapers in 6 provinces. His radio show, ‘The Green File’, airs five times per week on six radio stations across Canada. Mark is a best-selling author with over 20 books in print, including his most recent The New Canadian Garden, and is the gardening editor for the Harrowsmith Canadian Almanac, Harrowsmith Garden Digest, and is garden-editor of Active Life Magazine and Reno and Décor Magazine.

He is a spokesperson for many organizations, including being Founding Chair, Highway of Heroes Living Tribute, which has as its goal: to plant 117,000 trees on the Highway of Heroes, 401 CFB Trenton to Keele St., Toronto, to honour Canada’s fallen in war since WWI.

He is the recipient of many honours, including the Order of Canada in 2016. 


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150+ Canadians Day 106: John Geddes

Image: JohnGeddes.com

Dr. John Geddes contributed to peace by founding CanAssist Africa, a charity that funds small infrastructure projects in East Africa.

Dr. John Geddes is a Kingston family physician, Queen’s University Professor and founder of CanAssist Africa, a charity that funds small infrastructure projects in East Africa. Dr. Geddes presently spends half his time as Director of Operations for CanAssist.

Dr. Geddes has a background in rural medicine and student health. His first exposure to International Development was as Clinical Educator with the Queen’s Family Medicine Development Program in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).  From 1998 to 2009 he traveled regularly to BiH to teach physicians and nurses and help development of the discipline of Family Medicine in the country as it recovered from war. From 2004 to 2013 he was Medical Director for the McGill Canadian Field Studies in Africa programme and founded CanAssist African Relief Trust in 2008.

“Most of us would not hesitate to wade into a shallow pool to save a drowning child, even if it meant getting our new leather shoes wet and dirty.  Taken more broadly, giving up the cost of a night out at the movies to help vulnerable children in Africa follows the same moral responsibility. A life saved is a life saved, whether in a Canadian water park or a Ugandan village.” 

The goal of CanAssist is to improve the factors that we consider social determinants of health and well-being, through funding infrastructure improvements in the community that benefit the many, not just the few. CanAssist projects in Kenya and Uganda have included sending money for the purchase of school desks and hospital beds, building hospital laundry facilities and school latrines, developing water and sanitation projects – all of which dramatically improve the living conditions for many.

Communities, schools and health facilities come to CanAssist with ideas about what sustainable infrastructure will improve their well-being. 95% of funds raised go directly to on site projects, where work provides temporary employment to local men and women.

Since April, 2008, CanAssist Relief Trust has funded over 60 projects in East Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo, totalling $850,000. 


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150+ Canadians Day 105: Harold Cardinal

Image:  Alberta Culture & Tourism

Harold Cardinal contributed to peace by advocating for radical changes in policies affecting First Nations in Canada.

Harold Cardinal, an outstanding First Nations leader, philosopher, scholar, teacher, negotiator and lawyer was born in Northern Alberta in 1945. In 1968 at the age of 23, as a member of the Sucker Creek First Nation, Harold Cardinal was elected president of the Indian Association of Alberta (the forerunner of the Assembly of First Nations), its youngest president. During his unprecedented 9 terms in office 1968-77, he initiated many programs to affirm Indigenous culture, religion and traditions. After his Presidency he served as Band Chief to Sucker Creek First Nation.

Cardinal was a lifelong student of First Nations law and this study was complemented, but in no way supplanted, by extensive study of law in mainstream educational institutions. He earned a doctorate in law in his 40s, entered the Bar of Alberta at 59, and taught at the University of Saskatchewan. He completed his Masters of Law at Harvard University, and received his PhD in law posthumously form the University of BC. He was also a generous mentor and inspiration to a great many Indigenous and non- Indigenous students, professionals and political leaders.

Cardinal served as the Vice Chief of the Assembly of First Nations during the period of the patriation of the Canadian Constitution in the early 1980s. He was instrumental in the creation, in 1984, of the Prairie Treaty Nations Alliance, representing all First Nations of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, to advance issues of concern to those First Nations with particular emphasis on their treaties with the Crown.

He is perhaps best known for writing “The Unjust Society”, his response to then Minister of Indian Affairs, P. E. Trudeau’s “White Paper”, which advocated the elimination of separate legal status for Indigenous people in Canada. The white paper amounted to an assimilation program which, if implemented, would have repealed the Indian Act, transferred responsibility for Indian Affairs to the provinces and terminated the rights of Indians under the various treaties they had made with the Crown. The result was a complete about-face by the federal government on the policies of the White Paper and the establishment of joint meetings between First Nations and the federal cabinet in the early 1970.

“If we are to be part of the Canadian mosaic, then we want to be colourful red tiles, taking our place where red is both needed and appreciated.”

Cardinal was not only an architect of change on the political level; he was also instrumental in engaging and redefining the manner in which Indigenous and non-Indigenous people related to one another. One of the foundations of his life work was the insistence of the need for mutual recognition, understanding, and respect between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. While he acknowledged difference, he still fundamentally believed in the power of relationship: “Two more disparate people, speaking in different tongues, speaking from different worlds, would be hard to find anywhere and yet their dreams, their visions, their hopes, and their aspirations could not find any greater fusion”. Cardinal is also one of the first Indigenous scholars who actively sought “…a convergence between the knowledge systems of the Cree people and other First Nations and the knowledge systems found in Western educational institutions” (Cardinal, 2007, p. 65). Upon recognition of the power of colonization over both societies, Cardinal foresaw a bridge of understanding between them.

Honours and Awards

  • Honorary doctor of laws from the University of Alberta (1999)
  • Appointed Indigenous Scholar in Residence, School of Law, University of Alberta (1999)
  • National Aboriginal Achievement Award (2001)

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