Indigenous Veterans Day
Video / November 08, 2025
Transcript
Today—on Indigenous Veterans Day—we honour a remarkable chapter in Canada’s history.
We pay tribute to the courageous Indigenous soldiers, sailors, and aviators who have served this country with honour, and to the enduring values they helped defend.
Throughout our history, First Nations, Inuit, and Métis members have served with exceptional bravery and distinction in the Canadian Armed Forces.
They have fought, endured, and sacrificed in our name.
From Vimy to Dieppe, from Korea to Afghanistan, Indigenous service members have demonstrated extraordinary skill, courage, and devotion to duty.
On peacekeeping missions in Cyprus, Croatia, and around the world, Indigenous Peoples have proudly worn the blue helmet of the United Nations alongside the maple leaf of Canada.
They have helped shape our nation, strengthened our alliances, and stood firm against tyranny and injustice.
To all the Indigenous people who have served, who have sacrificed and who continue to do so, we thank you, we honour you and we remember you.
But remembrance is not limited to a single day of the year.
It is a commitment we must renew every day—refusing to take for granted the peace and security for which so many Indigenous people in uniform have fought, and sincerely pursuing our path towards reconciliation and partnership with the original stewards of these lands.
As the inscription on the National Aboriginal Veterans Monument in Ottawa aptly reminds us:
“We who would follow in their path are humbled by the magnitude of their sacrifice and inspired by the depths of their resolve. We owe them a debt of gratitude we cannot soon hope to repay.”
Let us never forget.
Lest we forget.