Remarks by
The Honourable Anita Neville, P.C., O.M.
Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba
OUR WHOLE SOCIETY: FOSTERING HOPE IN A DIVIDED WORLD CONFERENCE
Canadian Museum for Human Rights
Sunday, June 15, 2025, 7:30 p.m.
(please check against delivery)
Fellow Manitobans, welcome guests, builders of understanding – it is a pleasure to join you as you nurture hope at a time when we need it.
As Lieutenant Governor of Manitoba, I would first like to acknowledge that we are gathered in the heart of Treaty One land and the homeland of the Red River Metis and that our province is located on the treaty territories and ancestral lands of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Dakota and Dene nations and the homeland of the Red River Métis; and on lands that were and are the ancestral lands of the Inuit.
As Manitobans look to the future with hope, we see a province that works in partnership with First Nations, Metis and Inuit people in the spirit of truth, reconciliation and collaboration.
Hope is a powerful word – and it’s a word that sometimes gets a bad rap.
We sometimes think of “hope” as synonymous with simply wishing for the best. We sometimes think of “hopeful” as another way of saying “delusional.”
But it is a much more powerful and realistic attitude and emotion than that. We can be fully aware of the magnitude of all the challenges around us and still be encouraged. Hope can coexist – indeed it must coexist – alongside a clear-eyed acceptance of all that stands in the way of our goals.
That, I know, is the kind of hope that motivates this conference and that has filled the hearts of the scholars and leaders and activists gathered here this evening.
Here at the Canadian Museum of Human Rights we can learn about visionaries and leaders of thousands of years of progress in human rights. These men and women didn’t wear rose-coloured glasses. They knew the obstacles to freedom, justice and human dignity.
And I know you are well aware of the challenges of polarization, misinformation, climate change, instability and war facing the world today.
Faced with those, some may be tempted to throw up their hands and turn away. But you choose another pathway. You know that, as Joan Baez put it: “Action is the antidote to despair.”
As we gather here, thousands of Manitobans from towns and villages and first nations across our province are living as evacuees during a frightening forest fire season brought on by climate change.
And Manitoba communities are coming together to offer support – while firefighters and first responders from across Canada and beyond work to save communities.
Those actions are an antidote to despair. And we must use the hope that grows as we work together to inspire future work against climate change – just as we channel our hope in all efforts to make a better, more peaceful and more sustainable world.
Thank you for nurturing hope and working for solutions. Thank you to all the partner organizations that have made this Canadian Interfaith Conversation possible. May this conference strengthen the light of hope in your own heart.
Thank you. Merci. Meegwich. Shalom
