Kateri Champagne Jourdain broke a new glass ceiling on Thursday by becoming the first Indigenous person to join the Council of Ministers in Quebec. She inherited the Ministry of Employment in the government of François Legault.
“It’s an honor,” said Mr.me Champagne Jourdain, who also becomes minister responsible for the Côte-Nord region. The Innu MNA for Duplessis, who took the oath in Innu and French, won a historic victory on October 3 by becoming the first Aboriginal woman elected to the National Assembly.
During the ministers’ swearing-in speech, Premier François Legault stressed that the appointment of Kateri Champagne Jourdain should be seen as “a signal of rapprochement” between the Quebec nation and the First Nations and Inuit. “I want to be clear,” he said. That doesn’t mean Kateri has it all on her shoulders. All Quebecers have that on their shoulders. »
The presence of M.me Champagne Jourdain at the Council of Ministers sends an important message to Aboriginal communities, believes Martin Papillon, professor in the political science department at the University of Montreal. “It will give, I hope, greater visibility to the issues of concern to Aboriginal people. »
However, it is Ian Lafrenière who becomes minister responsible for First Nations and Inuit Relations. He was responsible for Indigenous Affairs in the first Legault government from 2020. Mme Champagne Jourdain, she maintained that Employment was an issue that has always been “close to her heart”. ” [Il] will require a set of solutions, ”she said in a press briefing.
It is not only in Quebec politics that Kateri Champagne Jourdain is a pioneer. She was the first Aboriginal to sit on the board of Desjardins Group. Originally from the Innu community of Uashat Mak Mani-Utenam, also worked on the band council. She then invested in the Arnaud mine project and got involved in the Apuiat wind farm project.
Further details will follow.
With Marco Fortier
To see in video