QUESTION PERIOD — Canadian Heritage
Speech from the Throne
May 28, 2025
Senator Gold, yesterday, we heard King Charles make a land acknowledgment about being on unceded Algonquin land. He talked about the Algonquin people. Personally, that made me a very proud Algonquin. However, at the same time, I started looking around this same room, and, unfortunately, I didn’t see very many other Algonquin people. There were no Algonquin drummers. There were no Algonquin chiefs. There were no Algonquin Elders. Elder Claudette Commanda, who happens to be my first cousin, said yesterday that perhaps there was a breach of protocol. When Canada hosts G7 meetings, they don’t ask another country to host them. When a province in the Council of the Federation hosts a meeting, they don’t ask another province to host it.
On behalf of all the communities that make up the Algonquin Nation, could you please provide an update and look into exactly what happened, as there was no Algonquin representation in hosting the King on Algonquin land?
Thank you for your question. I understand the disappointment underlying it.
It is not the responsibility of my office nor of the government, generally, to deal with matters of protocol, but I’ll certainly make the appropriate inquiries.
I appreciate that. Like I said, you know me, and I’m not looking to point fingers and blame. I know it’s a multi-faceted process.
Having said that, we all have a job to do, and my job is to speak on behalf of the Algonquin Nation that clearly wasn’t included in hosting the King on Algonquin land. For the future, let’s look into this to ensure that it never happens again and that the Algonquin people, especially the Elders, do not feel disrespected.
Thank you for raising that matter with me. I will certainly make inquiries.
