HONORARY DEGREE

Since beginning her career as a radio broadcaster with the CBC Northern Service (now CBC North), Her Excellency the Right Honourable Mary Simon has made significant contributions to Canadian broadcasting, public service and diplomacy.

A leader, constitutional negotiator and diplomat of Inuit ancestry, Ms. Simon was appointed as Canada’s 30th Governor General in 2021, becoming the country’s first Indigenous Governor General.

Ms. Simon has gained national and international recognition for her work on Arctic and Indigenous issues, and for her efforts in advocating for Inuit rights, youth, education and culture.

Ms. Simon’s lifelong dedication to public service began when she became involved with Northern Quebec Inuit Association (now Makivik Corporation) and Inuit Tapirit Kanatami, Canada’s national Inuit organization, working as one of the senior Inuit negotiators during the repatriation of the Canadian Constitution in 1982, as well as the 1992 Charlottetown Accord negotiations.

As vice-president of Makivik and, later, as its president, she was responsible for the implementation of the first land claims agreement in Canada, the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, as well as the protection and promotion of Inuit rights. Ms. Simon has also served as a member of the Nunavut Implementation Commission and as co-director (Policy) and secretary to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.

She took on a variety of roles for the Inuit Circumpolar Council, first as executive council member and then as president for six years. During her term as president, she worked with the Canadian and Russian governments to bring the Inuit Chukotka (Siberia) into the Inuit Circumpolar Council.

In 1994, during her time as a diplomat, she was appointed by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien to be Canada’s ambassador for Circumpolar Affairs. During her tenure in this role, she took the lead in negotiating the creation of an eight-country council known today as the Arctic Council, and held the position of Canadian ambassador to Denmark.

In 2008, as president of Inuit Tapirit Kanatami and on behalf of Inuit, she stood in the House of Commons and delivered a response to the Government’s formal apology on residential schools. She is the founder of the Arctic Children and Youth Foundation and, until 2014, she was the chairperson of the National Committee on Inuit Education. Over the course of her distinguished career, Ms. Simon has received many awards and distinctions. She is an Officer of the Ordre national du Québec, as well as a recipient of the Governor General’s Northern Medal, the Gold Order of Greenland, the National Aboriginal Achievement Award, the Gold Medal of the Canadian Geographical Society, and the Symons Medal.

The University of Manitoba is proud to award a Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, to Mary (Ningiukudluk) Simon in recognition of her immense impact on Indigenous communities in Canada, and her lifelong dedication to public service and diplomacy.