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The tale of the latest cabinet shuffle can be told in two contrasting pictures: in the first, from the swearing-in ceremony at Rideau Hall just over three years ago, Justin Trudeau can be seen gazing in patronizing fashion into Jody Wilson-Raybould’s eyes, his hands grasping her arms, while she beams back at him, bursting with joy and optimism at being named justice minister, the highest office in the government of Canada ever attained by an Indigenous Canadian.

The second, from Monday’s ceremony, shows Wilson-Raybould trying to cover her disappointment as she is demoted to veterans affairs minister. She offers Trudeau a curt handshake and he gives her a rather sheepish peck on the cheek.

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Try as she might, she could not hide her bruised pride.

Publicly, Trudeau and Wilson-Raybould disavowed any suggestion that this was anything other than another inspired move to “make better possible.”

Trudeau said his former justice minister would offer a “deft and steady hand” in her new job; she said she could think of “no world in which I would consider working for our veterans in Canada as a demotion.”

Photo by Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press/File

Photo by Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press

Her replacement is David Lametti, an extremely able former law professor, who used to co-captain Oxford University’s hockey team with Mark Carney, and who has the additional advantage of representing a Quebec riding.

But, despite the pro forma pleasantries, it was clear that Wilson-Raybould felt betrayed.

Moreover, it was apparent another of the prime minister’s catchphrases — that no relationship is more important than the one with First Nations — had just taken a bit of a battering.

The former B.C. regional chief was one of the star candidates assembled as part of Team Trudeau before the last election. She was heavily involved in setting out the 10 principles designed to reboot relations with First Nations, many of them developed from a document written by Wilson-Raybould and her husband, Tim, that advocated First Nations re-organize themselves into larger groups better able to manage their own affairs.

In a highly unusual move, Wilson-Raybould issued a statement that, as one colleague pointed out, read as if it were written in anger in the middle of the night.