Louise Arbour to be installed as governor general June 8
· Toronto Sun
OTTAWA – Canada will invest Louise Arbour its 31st governor general early next month.
That news comes just days after Prime Minister Mark Carney named the former Supreme Court of Canada justice as successor to outgoing vice-regal Mary Simon , whose five year term at Rideau Hall draws to a close this month.
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In an announcement Tuesday morning from the National Gallery of Canada, Carney announced Arbour as his pick to replace Simon had received approval from King Charles III, and fulfilled his promise that Canada’s next viceroy be a Francophone.
While Simon was indeed Quebec born and bilingual, her mother tongues are English and Inuktitut – owing to her upbringing in Kuujjuaq in the Quebec Arctic.
Simon’s lack of French was a nagging issue throughout nearly the entirety of her time as governor general.
Despite taxpayers spending nearly $52,000 in language classes and Simon’s assurances that she was committed to learning French, she never used that knowledge in public – highlighted by an embarrassing 2024 visit to Quebec City where she spoke almost no French.
Arbour had distinguished legal career
Aside from her stint on the bench of Canada’s highest court, the Montreal-born Arbour also served as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2004 to 2008, and the UN’s Special Representative for International Migration from 2017 to 2018.
During her time serving as a justice for the Ontario Court of Appeal, she was responsible for the Arbour Report probing conditions faced by women prisoners at the now-shuttered Kingston Prison for Women.
She also led the 2022 review into sexual misconduct in the Canadian Armed Forces and Canadian military colleges.