Canada Day: Chantal Kreviazuk on reconciliation, Ukraine

Moving towards reconciliation doesn’t come from jumping « the queue to perfection », but from building bridges and trusting each other, says Canadian singer-songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk.

Kreviazuk shared the message during an interview with CTV News Channel on Friday as Canada Day celebrations kicked off in Ottawa.

The Winnipeg native and Juno winner, who collaborated with Drake on his 2011 Grammy-winning album « Take Care, » is one of many artists hitting the stage in the nation’s capital.

With Canada Day meaning something different for everyone, including Indigenous peoples, Kreviazuk, who is both Ukrainian and Métis, said reconciliation comes through “little pivots.”

« What we need to do is come together with a little faith that some of us don’t have an agenda except to…move on, to get to a better place, » he said. she declared.

« We can’t just jump the queue perfectly and we have to build bridges and we have to trust each other, and I think when friendships are built and we break bread together and understand, for Not to sound corny, but we have more in common as humans than we don’t. »

With a great-grandmother who was a survivor of Manitoba’s Elkhorn residential school, Kreviazuk said she was raised to protect that side of the family — because having Indigenous blood might have made you land in a boarding school, she said.

« Now I’m here. I’m not ashamed. I’m very proud of my heritage both as Ukrainian and mixed race, » she said.

Kreviazuk also addressed Russia’s war in Ukraine, telling CTV News Channel that Russian President Vladimir Putin « must be stopped » and that Canada should do more to end the war.

« I don’t think we won’t win. I just think that’s how many lives we will lose, » she said.

« I just hope that when history is written, we’ve done everything we can. »

Watch the full interview with CTV’s Mike Le Couteur and Chantal Kreviazuk at the top of this article. With files from CTV News and The Canadian Press