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OTTAWA — On July 4, 2017, three days after Canada’s 150th birthday, Jody Wilson-Raybould gave a speech to members of the British Parliament in the Queen’s robing room at the Palace of Westminster in London.

She reflected, delicately, on the “remarkable journey” Canada had taken since Confederation, and the “important role” the United Kingdom has played in the country’s history.

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However, she said, “not all Canadians have been celebrating Canada 150 so passionately.

“There are voices that question the celebration.”

She went on to describe her own journey as a member of the Kwakwaka’wakw people of northern Vancouver Island who became regional chief of the British Columbia Assembly of First Nations, working to change laws that “have been used throughout Canada’s history in a misguided attempt to assimilate and oppress Indigenous peoples.”

Then she described meeting Justin Trudeau in 2013, when he first tried to recruit her as one of his star candidates for the 2015 election. “We talked about the future of Canada and his convictions with respect to Indigenous peoples,” she said. “I came to see formal political participation as a chance to be part of a government whose leader made a solemn commitment to fundamental change with a vision for true reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.”