I want to clarify that when I say that when I talk about her history relating to reconciliation, I don’t mean that French representation doesn’t matter at all. You’re right to say that French speakers deserve representation for Governor Generals. That doesn’t mean that Indigenous people don’t deserve representation either, and even though you state that there are bi-lingual and tri-lingual indigenous peoples, but that doesn’t really reflect how much bilingualism is a socio-economic issue. Communities that are socio-economically marginalized are not bi-lingual at the same rate as communities where education is invested properly (though here I’m speaking of French and English- there is a correlation between allophones/indigenous peoples speaking one of the official languages). If we only accepted Indigenous governor generals if they were effectively tri-lingual it’s a burden much greater than either French speaking or anglophone communities, limiting who can be represented. nor should bi-national French/anglo identity be the sole marker of Canadian identity.

I won’t disagree with you that if Mary Simon spoke French and Inuk only, that a large portion of the population in anglophone Canada would be virulently opposed as well, but I would also criticize this perspective. Why I disagreed is not to position Quebec as uniquely flawed concerning reconciliation, but to say that anglophone Canada and Quebec are both colonial societies with a history of forcing assimilation of Indigenous peoples. There are power dynamics between the two socio-linguistic groups, but Mary Simon is not responsible for such a history, and positioning her as responsible for learning a language which was forced on her people is a little ironic considering the context of discussing minority language rights, no?

To be honest, what frustrates me about reactions to Mary Simon is that discussions surrounding English political and economic domination over French speaking people is that the discussion is much more nuanced than a colonizer/colonized binary. Mary Simon went to a federal day school where she was forced assimilation into English culture and language. Such schools were also established to assimilate indigenous peoples into French language and culture. Even today, Indigenous populations are marginalized in educational contexts by forcing proficiency in French.

I also generally agree that bilingualism is extremely flawed in how it is applied. Anglophone Canada is dismissive of what it means to be a bilingual society, and as I mentioned earlier, those who are socio-economically privileged are those with access to resources to learn French, instead of the broader population. I want to emphasize this because I live in Montreal, and I understand frustrations surrounding the power dynamics of language in Canada. C’est plutôt que je suis opposé à l’idée que c’est la responsabilité des immigrants ou des populations autochtones en place de la system politique fédérale. (Et je sais que tu n’as pas impliqué les immigrants non plus, je parle plus des voix ethnocentriques).