Remarks by
The Honourable Anita Neville, P.C., O.M.
Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba
MAHATMA GANDHI PEACE AWARD CERMONY
Canadian Museum for Human Rights
Wednesday, April 9, 2025
(please check against delivery)
Fellow Manitobans – welcome to this celebration of hope, determination and advocacy.
We are gathered this evening in the heart of Treaty One land and the heartland of the Red River Metis, in a place where people have come together for centuries and millennia to trade and share ideas and cultures.
As Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba, I acknowledge that our province is located on the treaty territories and ancestral lands of the Anishinaabe, Anishininew (ANISH-IN-INEW), Cree, Dakota, Dene, Nehetho (NE-HET-HO) Nation and the homeland of the Red River Métis; and on lands that were and are the ancestral lands of the Inuit.
Manitobans respect the spirit and intent of treaties and treaty making and remain committed to working in partnership with First Nations, Metis and Inuit people in the spirit of truth, reconciliation and collaboration.
That spirit of truth, reconciliation and collaboration is one that is central to all efforts to build a more peaceful and more just world.
This evening, I am pleased to join you as Honorary Patron of this distinguished program as we recognize two great truth-tellers with the 2025 Mahatma Gandhi Peace Prize.
Tonight’s two award recipients have each reached the heights in their chosen careers of journalism and music. But they have done much more than attain personal success.
The work of Susan Aglukark and Sally Armstrong in raising our understanding of injustice and empowering advocates for human rights has inspired countless others in Canada and around the world.
They are fitting recipients of the Mahatma Gandhi Centre of Canada’s annual award for peace. And there is no better place to confer this honour than here at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights – a sacred space dedicated to the global struggle to define and defend the rights of all to safety, dignity and freedom.
In these uncertain times, Canadians are rallying around our country and seeking ways to defend our independence and identity as a nation. Canadians are thinking deeply about what it is that they love about our country and what we have to offer the world.
I suggest that one answer to that lies in our great humanitarians and peacebuilders — like Susan Aglukark and Sally Armstrong.
Susan, Sally, thank you for your contributions to a better Canada and a better world and for fostering our love for and pride in our fellow Canadians.
And thank you to the Mahatma Gandhi Centre for Canada, for making this evening possible and bringing us together in celebration and solidarity.
Thank you. Merci. Meegwich. Shalom
