Winnipeg, Wednesday, October 19, 2005

It's often said that Winnipeg is Canada's coldest provincial capital. Last week, I learned that snow had already fallen here while the temperature was still almost 30 degrees in Ottawa. And yesterday, people came to greet me in spite of the rain. What the weather reports do not say is that the warmth of the people of your city more than offsets the rigours of the climate—even for a woman like me, whose land of origin lies between the Atlantic and the Caribbean. First of all I want to thank the people of Winnipeg for the warm welcome given to me on the occasion of my first official visit as governor general. It has been unforgettable.

Your city is no stranger to me. I have already had the opportunity to visit here on a number of occasions. I first came here in the 1980s to support the set up of a network of shelters for women victims of violence. This is a social issue that I consider highly important and to which I devoted my first working years in Quebec. Next I came as a reporter, and most recently as a speaker on socially engaged journalism, at meetings of the Canadian Association of Journalists. The impression I formed from these earlier visits to Winnipeg is still very strong. I remember discovering here a place that is a model for the mingling of cultures, reflecting the Canada that we all want for coming generations.

Your city grew out of the encounter between Aboriginal peoples, Métis, Europeans and successive waves of immigration that today give Winnipeg its cultural richness and ensure its prosperity. I look about me in this room and I see citizens involved in their community, who are committed to tending to the needs of their fellow human beings. These values of openness, sharing and tolerance are paramount for me. I know that it is not always easy to give them expression, and that sometimes the differing characteristics of other people may be seen as a threat that tears apart the social fabric of a community. This is why it is important, and indeed urgent, to revitalize the dialogue among us, which to me is the founding principle of our country and a message of hope to all humanity.

I have said that my dearest wish is that we may work together to break down solitudes. This phrase is the motto on my coat of arms, and it has aroused much comment since my installation. Let me expand on it for a moment. I believe that the most barbaric act imaginable is to reduce another person to silence and thereby to exclude that person from life. Silence may take insidious forms around us. It is the silence of the most disadvantaged, the voiceless, those who have no choice but to be walled up alive within themselves. To me, this silence is intolerable. My own experience has taught me that breaking down such solitudes means restoring the dignity of each human being, and involving him or her as a full participant in the life of our society.

Of those gathered here today, I know that each of you in your own way plays a crucial role in the growth of your communities, and in the emergence of a society open to the world and respectful of the differences that give our country its strength and its uniqueness. Your contribution is vital. I encourage you to keep up the good work. We are all fortunate to live in a country full of opportunity. In a country that even allows us to reinvent it moment by moment for the greater good of its people. This places a responsibility on us that we must not take lightly. Because believe me, and I repeat, it is also a message of hope to many peoples trapped by barbarism or despair. Breaking down solitudes also means hearing the cries of grief that cross our borders, that knock at our doors and that come to us from some other place that we often hardly know.

I am one citizen among equals, and today I begin with you a tour that will soon take me all over Canada. Let me say that I am listening carefully, that I have much to learn, and that I intend to ensure wider appreciation of each of the actions that you are taking for the well-being of society. For me, by giving the voices of citizens their rightful place and importance in our country, we are already helping to break down the spectre of solitudes; we are establishing a spirit of fellowship between the women and men who make Canada what it is and who have the boldness and generosity of spirit to imagine a better world for their fellow human beings. You can count on me and my husband, Jean-Daniel Lafond, to ensure recognition throughout the land for your concerns, your successes and the hope that we all represent within the community of nations.

I still have so many things to discover in your city and in Manitoba. I am here now and I intend to return to visit you again. But I want to make full use of the coming days to meet many of you in the very places where you work. I also want to take this opportunity to greet and express my deepest sympathy to those waiting for news about their loved ones caught up in the disaster that recently struck South Asia. This first visit is only a beginning, and I want to establish a genuine collaboration that, as I have said, I hope with all my heart to maintain in the years to come.

Thank you.