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As millions of Canadians watched at viewing parties, homes and anywhere else with a cable or Internet connection, Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie brought more attention to the crisis facing Aboriginal communities.

“It’s going to take us 100 years to figure out what the hell went on up there but it isn’t cool, and everybody knows that. It’s really, really bad. But we’re going to figure it out. You’re going to figure it out,” he said to the sold-out crowd at the Rogers K-Rock Centre in Kingston Saturday night.

Timmins-James Bay MP Charlie Angus says Downie could’ve picked any topic he wanted, but to choose this one shows what a class act he is.

“I was really moved to hear that, I know a lot of Canadians were,” said Angus, who is also the NDP critic for Indigineous and Northern Affairs.

“Their hearts and their eyes were opened.”

Angus himself had a ticket to the concert, but had a prior commitment at a local fundraiser.  That didn’t prevent him from taking time to listen to a fellow musicians work.

“I sat on my porch and played Bobcaygeon and pretended I was there,” Angus said with a laugh.

The full CBC broadcast averaged just over four-million viewers, tuning in either on T-V or via livestreaming.

Citing numbers from pollster Numeris, the CBC says some 11.7-million Canadians tuned in on television, radio and digital at some point during the nearly three-hour broadcast.

It was expected to be the Hip’s last concert after frontman Gord Downie revealed earlier this year that he has terminal brain cancer.

Filed under: Local News