OK. Good morning, everyone. Good morning, everyone. We are gathering on the traditional unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabe Nation. This land acknowledgement bears witness to the shared history of the people of this country. May we continue on the path of truth and reconciliation together, guided not only by our words but by our actions. 

It's appropriate that we're gathering this morning at the National Gallery of Canada. A few blocks away from here at the then Clarendon Hotel, 146 years ago, the first exhibition was held at the Canadian Academy of the Arts. That academy was the dream of the then governor general, the Marquess of Lorne and his wife, her Royal Highness Princess Louise. They believed that a young confederation needed institutions through which it could see itself and through which it could be seen by the world. 388 works hung in the Clarendon that evening, and those works would become the seeds of this gallery, which today holds more than 17,000 works of Canadian, indigenous and global art. Canada was built on the foundations of three peoples; Indigenous, French and British. Indigenous peoples mapped this continent, sustained its lands and waters and built trading networks from coast to coast to coast for thousands of years before any European arrival. The French built a society shaped by river and forest, by partnership with indigenous nations and by a determination to flourish in a new world. When the British came, that civilization did not disappear. It suffered, but endured. And in time it grew into the Federation that we know today. Let's be clear; that founding was imperfect. It excluded too many. It was built in part on the dispossession and broken promises to indigenous peoples. But that founding contained an insight, an insight that has carried us forward; that unity does not require uniformity, that our differences are strengths to be nurtured, not a risk to be managed. That insight has been sustained and then reinforced generation after generation by our institutions, Parliament, the courts, the crown, the treaties, the Charter, the public service, a free press.

Institutions are how a country of our scale and diversity does not merely hold itself together but thrives. In a more dangerous, divided, and uncivil world, institutions matter more than ever.

A year ago, His Majesty King Charles opened our parliament with a speech from the Throne, the first time in nearly 70 years that Canada's sovereign had done so in person. The Crown is a continuous thread through our constitutional life. It is, as His Majesty himself said, a symbol of Canada in all her richness and dynamism. And the Governor-General is the Crown's representative in Canada, Commander in Chief of the Canadian Armed Forces, steward of our traditions, of peace, order and good government. And above all, the Governor-General is the guardian of our constitutional order. The most demanding part of that role is rarely seen. It's the duty to ensure the government in Canada is formed, sustained, and when the time comes, dismissed in accordance with law and convention. It's a duty that calls for sound judgment, deep learning and an unwavering commitment to the rule of law. That is the office. And it is the office to which I have asked His Majesty to appoint a Canadian whose entire life has been dedicated to that very principle. I'm very pleased to announce that on my recommendation, His Majesty has approved the appointment of the Honorable Louise Arbour as the 31st Governor-General of Canada. 

Born in Montréal, Louise Arbour studied at the Université de Montréal, was called to the Quebec Bar in 1971 and the Ontario Bar in 1977. She built her early career as a scholar at Osgoode Hall and as a leading voice for civil liberties in this country.

In 1987, Louise Arbour was appointed to the Supreme Court of Ontario as it was then known. In 1990, she was appointed to the Court of Appeal for Ontario. In 1999, she was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada. One of Canada's most demanding judicial careers, more than enough for one lifetime. That career would serve only as the foundation for what came next, because her most consequential work as a jurist was beyond the Canadian courtroom. In 1996, Louise Arbour was appointed by the United Nations Security Council as chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda, the first international criminal tribunals since Nuremberg. She inherited two institutions that many believed could not succeed. She made them succeed. Under her leadership, the tribunal secured the first conviction for genocide since the adoption of the Genocide Convention in 1948. The Akayesu judgment, which also established for the first time that sexual violence can constitute a weapon of genocide and a crime against humanity. And in 1999, in the middle of a war, she signed the indictment of a sitting head of state, Slobodan Milosevic, for crimes against humanity and violations of the laws of war, something that had never been done before.

A new precedent for justice free from fear or favour. These were not technical achievements. They are the foundation of the modern proposition that no person, however powerful, and no state, however protected, stands outside the reach of law. 

That proposition is the foundation of Canadian citizenship. We're a country whose civic identity is grounded in the universality of rights, that what is owed to one of us is owed to all of us. And what is owed to a Canadian is owed in our tradition to every human being, whether or not they have the great good fortune to live here. In 2004, Louise Arbour left the Supreme Court of Canada to become United Nation’s High Commissioner for Human Rights. For four years, she gave voice to those whose dignity was denied. In places where the powerful preferred silence, she did not flinch and she never confused being heard with being safe. 

There is a third through-line in her career, less remarked upon but no less important.

Three times, Louise Arbour has been asked to look hard at an institution that had failed the people in its care, and to set out what would be needed to put it right. In 1995, she chaired the inquiry into the Prison for Women in Kingston, a report that catalysed the modernisation of how Canada incarcerates women. As High Commissioner, she pressed the United Nations human rights system itself to be worthy of the people it claimed to serve. And in 2022, she delivered her Independent External Comprehensive Review of sexual misconduct in the Canadian Armed Forces – a report whose recommendations are now being implemented, and which will reshape Canadian military justice. 

Her work matters in and of itself. It also tells us something about what Louise Arbour will bring to Rideau Hall. The conviction that institutions are the load bearing walls of a civil society and that they remain trustworthy only as long as someone is willing to hold them accountable. Louise Arbour has held nearly every office a Canadian jurist can hold and several that no Canadian has held before. She has been recognized with nearly 100 honours and awards, including 42 honorary doctorates from universities around the world. She's a companion of the Order of Canada, our country's highest civilian honour. But the measure of her career is neither in the offices she is held nor the awards she's received, it's in the lives she has changed through her service. Survivors of genocide who saw justice in their lifetimes. Women in prisons in Canada whose conditions were improved because she said what no one else would say. Members of our armed forces who can serve today with greater dignity because of the report that she wrote. 

Millions of people have had their rights better protected because, somewhere, an institution that Louise Arbour helped build did its work. And millions more have benefited from the precedents and standards, standards she established. That is service in its truest sense – not service to a role, but to principles.

Across more than five decades in every role she's held, the Honorable Louise Arbour has carried the same conviction that a free society depends on institutions properly being held to account, that the law stands between power and the powerless, that the dignity of every person should not be a product of the accidents of geography, citizenship or convenience, and that Canada's place in the world is to be a country that lives those propositions and helps others to live them as well. A deeply Canadian conviction, one that's older than our charter and broader than our borders. It runs through our public life from the person's case to the patriation of our Constitution, from the building of Medicare, to the building of the United Nations. 

It is the conviction that a community is more than the sum of its members – that it is the institutions, the traditions, and the commitments through which we choose to live together. This is what Louise Arbour has devoted her life to defending and defining. And it is what she will bring to the role she is about to assume.

Before I conclude, we observe that Madam Arbour will succeed an exemplary Governor-General. Her Excellency, the right Honorable Mary Simon has been a steadfast representative of Canada and our institutions at home and around the world. As the first Indigenous person to serve in this role, she's carried forward a lifetime of advocacy for Inuit rights, for Indigenous self-determination, and for the preservation of our indigenous languages, cultures and identities.

As she has often said, reconciliation is not a project with an end date, but a responsibility to be lived – day after day, in how we listen, how we learn, and how we act. Mary Simon championed literacy and education as foundations of self-determination. She elevated national conversations on mental health, particularly in northern and Indigenous communities, bringing visibility to challenges too often overlooked, and dignity to those too often unheard. Her legacy will endure not only in her service, but in how she served – with grace, resolve, and an unshakeable belief in Canada’s greatness.

To our Excellency Governor General Simon, to His Excellency Whit Fraser, to your family, thank you for your extraordinary service to Canada. At a time when much of the world is buffeted by crises and the worst are full of passionate intensity, Canada's history, our institutions and our enduring traditions matter more than ever. We retain our convictions. We reinforce our institutions. As Mary Simon has, Louise Arbour will represent the best of Canada to Canadians and to the world. A country that's a bastion of security, prosperity and justice, a beacon to a world lost at sea. A Canada that is clear eyed about the challenges we face and steadfast in the values we uphold. A Canada that's not just strong but good. A Canada that's not just prosperous but fair. A Canada that is not just for some most of the time, but for all, all of the time.

Madame Arbour, on behalf of the Government of Canada, and on behalf of all Canadians, thank you for agreeing, once again, to serve our country.