Montreal appoints commissioner of Indigenous affairs

Cree lawyer Marie-Ève Bordeleau has been appointed to a three-year term as commissioner of Indigenous affairs for the City of Montreal.

Montreal mayor Valérie Plante made the announcement Wednesday morning, just before unveiling her party's first budget.

Bordeleau's job will include coming up with a reconciliation strategy for the City of Montreal and advising the mayor and executive on how to build better bridges with Indigenous people living in the city. 

She will also lead interdepartmental working groups looking into how to better include Indigenous perspectives in the law and regulations at the municipal level. 

"Reconciliation between the City of Montreal and Indigenous people is an important project for me that will have a real impact for Indigenous communities," said Bordeleau.

"I see it really as a project of collective healing."

The position was announced last September at the inauguration of the city's new flag and coat of arms, highlighting the contribution of Indigenous people, by the previous administration of Mayor Denis Coderre.

Marie-Ève Bordeleau has been a member of the Quebec Bar since 2007 and has been practising as a lawyer, mediator and consultant with an office in the Mohawk community of Kahnawake, on the south shore of Montreal.

She was born in the Quebec town of Senneterre and is a member of the Cree Nation of Waswanipi.

She will start her new job at the end of January.