Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek in her Remembrance Day remarks at the Military Museums addressed Calgarians as “settlers” on land owned by others.Gondek opened her speech with “greetings” in indigenous languages to the crowd of members and veterans of the Canadian Armed Forces and their families, local politicians, foreign dignitaries and locals honouring those who lost their lives fighting for Canada. “Let me welcome you with Oki Dada Nastada Ambowastich, and Tansi,” said Gondek. “These are greetings in the traditional languages of the Treaty 7 indigenous people who stewarded these lands for generations before many of us came to settle here.”“Indigenous ways of knowing and being have always prioritized living in harmony and in peace, a fundamental principle we see compromised throughout the world.” Gondek then introduced her Sikh grandfather, Major Kirtar Singh Brad, who she said has a strong “compassion for and is a support to many displaced people who were forced to relocate during the partition of India many years ago.”She went on to commemorate the fallen soldiers and those who made great sacrifice in volunteering to fight for Canada in the First World War. “This is not a small sacrifice, to leave behind your comfortable life and your family to protect society,” she said.She said she was “heartened” to see so many people trend, and talked about the importance of people educating themselves about the history of the military. . A similar Remembrance Day ceremony unfolded across the country in Toronto. City protocol manager Aretha Phillip began her speech by “acknowledging the indigenous people of these lands.” She said it’s Torontonians “responsibility to improve relationships in our nation and to better understand our role as residents … in the place we each call home.” “The City of Toronto acknowledges a land we’re meeting on as the traditional territory of many First Nations, Inuit and Metis peoples … and we acknowledge that Toronto is covered by Treaty 13,” said Phillip. She named those who have come to Toronto “as settlers” and those who were brought “involuntarily” through the “Transatlantic Slave Trade and slavery.”
Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek in her Remembrance Day remarks at the Military Museums addressed Calgarians as “settlers” on land owned by others.Gondek opened her speech with “greetings” in indigenous languages to the crowd of members and veterans of the Canadian Armed Forces and their families, local politicians, foreign dignitaries and locals honouring those who lost their lives fighting for Canada. “Let me welcome you with Oki Dada Nastada Ambowastich, and Tansi,” said Gondek. “These are greetings in the traditional languages of the Treaty 7 indigenous people who stewarded these lands for generations before many of us came to settle here.”“Indigenous ways of knowing and being have always prioritized living in harmony and in peace, a fundamental principle we see compromised throughout the world.” Gondek then introduced her Sikh grandfather, Major Kirtar Singh Brad, who she said has a strong “compassion for and is a support to many displaced people who were forced to relocate during the partition of India many years ago.”She went on to commemorate the fallen soldiers and those who made great sacrifice in volunteering to fight for Canada in the First World War. “This is not a small sacrifice, to leave behind your comfortable life and your family to protect society,” she said.She said she was “heartened” to see so many people trend, and talked about the importance of people educating themselves about the history of the military. . A similar Remembrance Day ceremony unfolded across the country in Toronto. City protocol manager Aretha Phillip began her speech by “acknowledging the indigenous people of these lands.” She said it’s Torontonians “responsibility to improve relationships in our nation and to better understand our role as residents … in the place we each call home.” “The City of Toronto acknowledges a land we’re meeting on as the traditional territory of many First Nations, Inuit and Metis peoples … and we acknowledge that Toronto is covered by Treaty 13,” said Phillip. She named those who have come to Toronto “as settlers” and those who were brought “involuntarily” through the “Transatlantic Slave Trade and slavery.”
