Governor General of Canada to serve as Honorary Patron of UNA-Canada

Media Advisory

Her Excellency the Right Honourable Mary Simon, Governor General of Canada to serve as Honorary Patron of UNA-Canada

Ottawa, 9 August 2022: The President & CEO of the United Nations Association in Canada (UNA-Canada), Jaime Webbe, along with the Chair of the National Board of Directors, Vittoria Varalli, is delighted to announce that Her Excellency the Right Honourable Mary Simon, Governor General of Canada, has graciously agreed to serve as Honorary Patron of our Association.

In agreeing to serve in this capacity, Her Excellency continues a connection UNA-Canada has been privileged to enjoy with governors-general of Canada for many years. We take this acceptance as a tangible recognition of the work undertaken by the Association through programmes that engage Canadians from coast to coast to coast, through a National Office in Ottawa and a network of volunteer Branches and members and supporters across the country.

We also take this as a clear bestowing of responsibility to reflect the values of the Governor General in all of our work. We strive to respond to the question put by Her Excellency to all Canadians, “what can we do better and how can we do it?”.

In our programming over the past year UNA-Canada has deepened our commitment to the environment and to efforts to combat climate change by leading Canada’s celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the United Nations Environment Programme. We have embraced reconciliation as a societal shift by learning more about the role that we have to play as an Association, and by helping our members explore their own roles as we were granted the immense privilege of sharing Indigenous Knowledge on conservation, with the Free, Prior and Informed Consent of the knowledge holders. We embrace the Governor General’s assertation that leadership comes from many places and people across Canada. In our own work, including our GenerationSDG and Building Young Entrepreneurs programmes, we see concrete examples of young Canadians stepping up to build a better world. We seek to encourage the incoming generation as we grow global citizens.

We also take this recognition as an obligation to continue to meet the rigorous standards of integrity, transparency and inclusivity expected of any organization Her Excellency honours with this official connection. We look forward to opportunities for direct engagement from time to time over the duration of her term as our Honorary Patron.

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For more information please contact;

Joan Broughton, Information Officer

Joan.broughton@unac.org or 613-232-5751 ext 230