Governor General Mary Simon says it’s “difficult to say” whether King Charles III could apologize for the Crown’s legacy of colonialism , but stressed that she’s more interested in seeing concrete action.
“These apologies are very complex,” she told CTV National News’ Chief News Anchor and Senior Editor Omar Sachedina on Sunday, reflecting on the King’s coronation. “And it took many years for us to get an apology from the Canadian government. Years of work. The issue of residential schools took many years before the Pope apologized. So it’s difficult to say exactly whether there could be an apology.”
Simon was one of the members of the Canadian delegation inside Westminister Abbey as the King was officially crowned on Saturday.
As she observed the proceedings, she said she reflected on the “historic nature of the event.”
“And the organ and the choir — the music was just phenomenal, out of this world, really,” she said. “Quite an experience.”
Simon had also played a pivotal role in securing a meeting between King Charles III and First Nations, Inuit and Metis leaders only a few days prior to the coronation.
“I was thinking what we could do to start our conversation with the King, and I felt that it would be really important if the three national Indigenous leaders could meet him,” she said. “I organized a phone call with His Majesty, and talked to him about it. And he was open to it. So the next step was to call each of the national Indigenous leaders and see whether they were open to having a conversation or not with the King. And everybody agreed that it was a good idea.”
Assembly of First Nations Chief RoseAnne Archibald, Métis National Council president Cassidy Caron and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami president Natan Obed were all present at the meeting on Thursday and attended the coronation on Saturday.
Simon said that forward momentum and concrete actions are more important to her than apologies.
“An apology is words, and it makes people feel good and deal with their trauma to some extent, but if you don’t have any action after that, it stays static,” she said.
Watch the full interview with Governor General Mary Simon at the top of this article.
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