The old saying goes that you don’t appreciate what you’ve got until it’s gone. That’s particularly true for things like your health. We take it for granted until we can’t do the things we’re used to doing and lose our freedom and independence.

The same can also be said about our Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

We act as if they always were, are, and always will be there for us. Until they aren’t.

That is the state of our Charter rights across the country, as more and more provinces use the notwithstanding clause to suspend Charter rights. Section 33 of our Charter can be used to suspend sections 2 and 7-15 of our Charter rights, which includes pretty much everything that you’d consider to be our basic human rights.

For the first time in its 30-year history, the Manitoba Prospectors and Developers Association has a majority Indigenous board of directors.

A precedent-setting trial that wrapped up in Winnipeg’s Court of King’s Bench at the end of February has called for a court to determine, for the first time in 150 years, whether the value of Treaty 1 annuities is subject to an increase after being frozen at $5 per person since 1875.

A francophone couple has founded a first-of-its-kind private school in Manitoba as demand for French education hits record levels.

Like many of you, I watched the Olympics with a focus on both our women’s and men’s hockey teams, both of whom fell just short of gold medals, in losses to the U.S.

In the normal course of sports and national pride, this would always be a bit of a disappointment. I think it was heightened this year, given the insults and economic pain which the U.S. has inflicted upon us, their largest trading partner, over the past year.

To put it bluntly, we are a long way from the words of former president John F. Kennedy, who spoke of our relationship in a 1961 address to the Canada’s Parliament, saying, “Geography has made us neighbours. History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners. And necessity has made us allies.”

While we will remain neighbours to the U.S. and will always have a large trading relationship with them, the depth of our relations, as either a friend or an ally, will never be what it was.

It’s conference season.

Between teaching classes and writing in this space, I’ve been on the road for weeks, speaking, listening and learning.

Iqaluit, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Montréal. More times in Toronto than I care to admit. And, right now, I’m in Coquitlam, B.C.

Right now, reconciliation is underway in many places in this country. In others, Indigenous peoples and Canadians are coming together and talking — for the first time — at events and meetings.