Activities of Secretary-General in Canada, 12–13 August

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Madam Ban Soon-taek arrived in Calgary from San Francisco at midday on Friday, 12 August.

He paid a courtesy calls on Lois Mitchell, Lieutenant Governor of Alberta and Sarah Marjorie Hoffman, Deputy Premier of Alberta Province.  He also met with Richard Feehan, Minister of Indigenous Relations and Representatives of Alberta’s Indigenous Community, and he also met that day with Syrian refugee families recently resettled in Canada.

On Friday evening, he spoke to students at the University of Calgary.  He applauded Canada for starting to work towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.  He said he is particularly encouraged by attention to First Nations peoples, and noted that indigenous peoples around the world are central to addressing global warming.  He hopes that “Canadians, including indigenous leaders, can push for ratification of the Paris Agreement on climate change” later this year.  (See Press Release SG/SM/17978.)

On 13 August, the Secretary-General began annual leave.