OTTAWA — Louise Arbour was installed as Canada's governor general on Monday following a swearing-in ceremony in Ottawa. Prime Minister Mark Carney selected Arbour for the position, which was previously held by Mary Simon.

Simon served as Canada's governor general starting in 2021 and was the first Indigenous person to hold the role. As governor general, Arbour serves as the representative of Britain's King Charles III, who is Canada's head of state. The Governor General's Flag was raised on Parliament Hill to mark the installation, and the Central Band of the Canadian Armed Forces performed "God Save the King" during the ceremony.

The governor general's role includes constitutional duties alongside ceremonial and symbolic functions. Arbour is Francophone and is 79 years old. Before her installation, she met with King Charles III at Buckingham Palace.

Arbour previously served as a judge on the Supreme Court of Canada, the Court of Appeal for Ontario, and the Supreme Court of Ontario. In 1996, the United Nations appointed her as Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. These tribunals secured the first conviction for genocide under the 1948 Genocide Convention and issued the first indictment for war crimes against a sitting head of state. She also served as a U.N. Special Representative for International Migration from 2017 to 2018.

Arbour said, "The lines between knowledge and belief, between truth and falsehood, between facts and assumptions are increasingly blurred. AI could be threatening not only the way we live and work, but also the control we exercise over our own destiny."