The appointment of an Aboriginal woman to Justice Minister is also being heralded on social media..
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And while the new ministers of Justice (Jody Wilson-Raybould), National Defence (Harjit Sajjan) and Sport and Persons with Disabilities (Carla Qualtrough) are all newcomers to federal politics, they are all logical choices for their portofilios.
“I am looking forward to working with Prime Minister Trudeau and his cabinet as we continue to build a stronger, more-prosperous Canada and British Columbia”.
Wilson-Raybould is a member of the We Wai Kai Nation and is descended from the Musgamagw Tsawataineuk and Laich-Kwil-Tach peoples, according to CBC News, part of the Kwakwaka’wakw people from the northern end of Vancouver Island and the British Columbia central coast.
After being elected in Vancouver Granville, she flagged First Nations concerns as one of Liberal government’s biggest public policy issues.
Grand Chief Ed John says he’s confident Wilson-Raybould will launch a long-demanded inquiry on the number of missing and murdered aboriginal women, and pave the road towards reconciliation. “Her appointment shows that this government cares about proper representation of indigenous perspectives and women”, said Isadore Day, Ontario regional chief of the Assembly of First Nations. She has said the meeting with Harper led to her decision to run for the Liberals. She is the former legal counsel for both the B.C. and Canadian human rights commissions.
And Delta’s Carla Qualtrough is a visually impaired Paralympic Games medalist in swimming, on top of being a lawyer and serving as a director for the Vancouver 2010 Legacies Now Society.
Qualtrough holds a political science degree from the University of Ottawa, and another in law from the University of Victoria.
Sajjan served 11 years as a Vancouver police officer and served overseas with the Canadian military.
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The combat veteran is a Lieutenant-Colonel who was deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina and was deployed three times to Afghanistan. He defeated incumbent Conservative MP Wai Young to become MP of a riding in which he grew up, after immigrating with his family from India.
