Cindy Blackstock

Cindy Blackstock is Canada's foremost Indigenous children's rights advocate. She is Executive Director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada and a professor of Social Work at McGill University. A member of the Gitksan First Nation, Blackstock was born in the rural community of Burns Lake, British Columbia. Since earning a bachelor's degree in Psychology from the University of British Columbia, she has devoted her life to child protection and Indigenous child welfare. Blackstock, who holds a master's degree in Management from McGill University, a master's degree in Jurisprudence from Loyola University in Chicago, and a PhD in Social Work from the University of Toronto, in addition to numerous honorary degrees, regularly speaks out against injustices and structural inequalities experienced by Indigenous children in Canada. A convincing and passionate speaker, she has contributed to several United Nations' initiatives in support of Indigenous children's rights and has been recognized for her contributions by the Nobel Women's Initiative, Indspire (formerly the Aboriginal Achievement Foundation), and many others.

"My goal is to help raise a generation of First Nations children who never have to recover from their childhoods, and a generation of non-Indigenous children who never have to say sorry."