Kiviaq
Canadian football player and politician / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kiviaq (also known as David Charles Ward;[1] January 23, 1936 – April 24, 2016) was a Canadian Inuk lawyer, politician, and former sportsman.[2] He was raised in Edmonton, Alberta.
Kiviaq (David Charles Ward) | |
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Edmonton City Councillor | |
In office 1968–1974 | |
Personal details | |
Born | (1936-01-23)January 23, 1936 Chesterfield Inlet, Northwest Territories (now Nunavut), Canada |
Died | April 24, 2016(2016-04-24) (aged 80) Edmonton, Alberta, Canada |
Alma mater | Northwestern State University Washington State University |
Occupation | Lawyer |
In 1968, he became involved in politics, being elected to Edmonton City Council. He had won the Vanier Award as one of Canada's "Five Most Outstanding Young Men," for his work as a public relations officer and recreational director for the city. He served two terms on the council as an alderman, and ran for mayor in the 1970s with an unsuccessful outcome.[3] As a personable politician, he successfully lobbied for the Commonwealth Games to be held in Edmonton. He ran his own open-line radio show at CJCA and CJOI-FM, with interview subjects such as Muhammad Ali. After attending law school, Kiviaq was the first Inuk to become a lawyer, and was responsible for several important advances in establishing the legal rights of Inuit. He was called to the bar in 1983,[4] a moment recognized in a letter from then-Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau as a "solid and progressive achievement in the history of your people." In September 2000, Mr. Ward made the initial application to change his name back to Kiviaq, the single-word Inuktituk name that his mother and Caucasian step-father gave him at birth. In 2001, he won that right.[1][5][4] In 2003, Edmonton City Council and mayor Bill Smith declared March 14 "Kiviaq Day".[6]