GORD DOWNIE, "The Stranger," 2016

By Aaron Brophy 10/23/17 | www.samaritanmag.com

When musical poet/The Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie died Oct. 17 due to brain cancer, he left Canada with one last message — the country must reconcile with the way it has mistreated its indigenous peoples for the last 150 years so that it can be better in the next 150 years. Downie backed up these words in deed (he created The Downie Wenjack Fund), and in music, releasing the 2016 concept album Secret Path about Chanie Wenjack, a Anishinaabe boy who died from hunger and exposure after escaping a residential school. "The Stranger" is one of the singles from this album. Buy it here. — Aaron Brophy