Manitoba woman sends back her Diamond Jubilee medal

A Manitoba woman has returned her Queen's Diamond Jubilee medal after learning more about the impacts of residential schools and the Idle No More protest movement.

Karen Davis of Dauphin, Man., received the medal for starting a literacy program that has since spread to 25 communities across the province, including 14 First Nations.

The special medals have been awarded to 60,000 recipients across Canada in the past year to commemorate the Queen's 60 years on the throne.

But Davis, who is originally from the Ebb and Flow First Nation, said she started having a change of heart as she read more about aboriginal residential schools and the Idle No More protests.

"I really did some soul-searching, and at the end of the day [I] couldn't accept a medal from the government," Davis told CBC News on Monday.

Davis said despitePrime Minister Stephen Harper's apology to former residential school students in 2008, she still could not accept the medal.

"Like, the apology was one thing, but what's happening now is totally something else," she said.

Davis said she mailed her medal, along with a letter of explanation, to Gov. Gen. David Johnston.

She said she hopes her small act will have an impact.

Davis is not the only person to have rejected a Diamond Jubilee medal recently.

Last month, three prominent Canadians, including Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians,rejected their medals to show solidarity with Idle No More, which has been calling on the federal government to address the concerns of aboriginal people.