Read and watch Louise Arbour’s first speech as Governor-General

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Governor-General Louise Arbour reads her statement in Ottawa on Monday. Justin Tang/The Canadian Press

Former Supreme Court justice Louise Arbour was sworn in as Canada’s 31st Governor-General on Monday. Here are the remarks she delivered during her installation ceremony in Ottawa, provided by Rideau Hall:

Dear Canadians.

I am deeply honoured to stand before you here today. These halls were built on the traditional territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg Nation, a proud people who have cared for these lands and enriched them with their culture for millennia.

We are gathered today in this Senate Chamber, where careful scrutiny is applied to the laws that will shape our future.

Like the Supreme Court of Canada and the House of Commons, the Senate contributes to the dialogue through which Canadian democracy is expressed.

I want to thank Prime Minister Carney, and His Majesty King Charles III, for entrusting me with the opportunity to serve another great Canadian institution in a new role over the coming years.

Louise Arbour sworn in as Governor-General

I also wish to thank the Right Honourable Mary Simon for her remarkable service.

Her Excellency stood with Canadians through defining moments – from the COVID-19 pandemic to periods of economic strain and profound shifts in the global landscape.

Her tenure as Canada’s first Indigenous governor-general will be viewed by history as both significant and timely. I admire the hand that Her Excellency has extended to all Canadians. She has reminded us that reconciliation is a lifelong journey that begins with listening and with empathy.

Listening to voices that challenge our understanding of history.

Listening to Indigenous environmental and spiritual knowledge, deeply sophisticated yet long overlooked.

Listening to languages unfamiliar to many of us that have resonated from coast to coast to coast for centuries.

And embracing a future in which First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples are no longer cast aside.

For my part, I have learned the importance of understanding differing points of view, both through my education and throughout my professional life. In fact, I have experienced both the comfort and discomfort of homogeneity.

Governor-General Louise Arbour delivered her first speech as the King's representative in Canada, moments after being sworn into office in the Senate of Canada. Arbour used her first remarks to Canadians to encourage a respect of diversity, and trust, in each other and of our institutions, as she warns of the risks of polarization and both the risks and rewards new technology is bringing to our society.

The Canadian Press

I grew up in Montréal in a comfortably homogeneous environment.

I grew up in uniform, educated exclusively by women: my mother and the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre-Dame. Until the age of 20, I was surrounded by classmates who were all francophone, white, Catholic girls, just like me.

I then worked in another largely homogeneous environment – one that was predominantly anglophone and male-dominated. And despite the promise I made to myself at age 20 to never again wear a uniform, I donned my judge’s robe without the slightest inkling of the surprises life has in store for us.

I then had the incredible opportunity to work abroad. I discovered the richness of the connections to be made with people with whom we thought we had nothing in common.

My work, both as a judge and in service to the international community, exposed me to a wide range of perspectives. The same is true of the privilege I had of living abroad and working in countries that are vastly different from Canada. I have seen regions ravaged by war and poverty, where people, like all of us, yearn to live with dignity, in peace and security.

I have always been struck by the fact that, after all, everything is a matter of perspective.

I remember standing outside the United Nations headquarters in New York in the 1990s, confronted with my own biases. I came across a group of Chinese tourists and asked a young woman about her impressions of the city. She replied, “It is so old!” I was surprised.

Then I realized I had been projecting a story onto her, imagining her as coming from a civilization of centuries-old splendour, gazing out at a vibrant city in a younger country. In reality, she was more likely born in futuristic Shenzhen or Shanghai, glittering metropolises of glass towers.

There I was, looking at New York, looking at her, and making assumptions.

Perspective is everything.

I look at Canada through the eyes of someone who has known it both up close and from afar, always with admiration. A country that is not afraid to reinvent itself.

Our future is our shared project, a project that calls on us to balance the many perspectives that shape our collective identity.

We do not all share the same understanding of our history.

Nor do we all share the same origins. We, or our ancestors, come from all over the world.

Peoples have alwa…