OTTAWA – The Native Women’s Association of Canada (NWAC) announces the election of its new President, Carol McBride, to serve a three-year term as head of Canada’s largest Indigenous women’s organization. President McBride was elected by members of NWAC at the organization’s annual general assembly that was held on July 16.
President McBride is a former Algonquin leader from Timiskaming First Nation on the shores of Lake Timiskaming in northwestern Quebec. She says her focus over the next three years will be to ensure that the Calls for Justice of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) are enacted by decision-makers at all levels.
“As the MMIWG Calls to Justice revealed, a substantive investment in our security and wellbeing is long overdue,” said President McBride. “I don’t plan on letting these important issues idle any longer. We don’t have time to waste. Indigenous women have already lost too much.” She said the Seven Grandfather Teachings – love, truth, bravery, humility, wisdom, honesty and respect – will be central to her leadership at NWAC.
President McBride said she will fight for equality in training opportunities, education, health care, mental-health awareness, and housing for Indigenous women and gender-diverse people. She said she will emphasize the importance of healing from intergenerational trauma and will build the resources to end the crisis of substance abuse in both urban and rural Indigenous communities.
She served for six years on the council of the Temiskaming First Nation before becoming the First Nation’s first female Chief, a position she held for 13 years. Under her leadership, the community’s infrastructure was expanded with a new long-term-care home, a new elementary school, a new water treatment plant, and a new Band Office.
President McBride also served as the Grand Chief of the Algonquin Nation for two terms, during which time she secured an agreement giving the Algonquin 51 per cent ownership of the Obadjiwan–Fort Témiscamingue National Historic Site. She was a prominent leader of the fight to thwart the City of Toronto’s plans to dump its garbage in Northern Ontario.
President McBride is a proud mother and grandmother. She and her husband, Alvin McBride, chose to raise their family on the Temiskaming First Nation.
NWAC, which is one of Canada’s largest National Indigenous Organizations, represents First Nations, Métis, and Inuit women and gender-diverse people from coast to coast to coast, including those with status and those without, as well as those who live in Indigenous communities and those who do not. President McBride takes over the association’s leadership at an exciting time as it expands its provision of direct services to its constituency while continuing the critical advocacy role it has played for nearly a half century.
