Symons Lecture in PEI

Mary Simon delivers Symons Lecture on the State of Canadian Confederation in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island

On Tuesday November 3rd Mary Simon delivered the Symons Lecture on the State of Canadian Confederation in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. The lecture discussed the need for Canada to demonstrate international leadership in working with the global community to develop real solutions to combatting rapidly accelerating climate change at COP15, and the necessity of approaching policy making for Inuit Nungnat around the principle that Inuit must be fundamental partners in developing those policies. The core message delivered is that there exist many gaps in education, health, social, economic, and housing standards, between Inuit and southern Canadians, and that those gaps must be closed before Inuit can be full partners in Confederation. The current gaps cannot be effectively closed by the imposition of outside solutions, they can however be closed by a full working partnership between Inuit and Governments. Acknowledgment of the central importance of historical Inuit use and occupation of Canadian Arctic lands and waters is a fundamental building block of that partnership. In addition to the lecture Mary Simon was awarded the Symons Medal, established in 1972 in honour of T.H.B. Symons, the founding president of Trent University. The speaking notes for the full lecture are available here.‬