The measure of a good community or a good country, as I understand it, is how it treats its poor. So for a good country, you look at the poor people in that country and see how they are being taken care of. I look at Canada, and I look at Canada's north, and the aboriginal people are not living well. They are not living well. You go to the communities and it's sad.
For somebody who takes care of people who are poor, I don't have anything to say about how to do it, or who should do it, or who should solve the problem. All I know is it needs to be solved. Whether it's the feds, or it's the provinces, or it's the community, it needs to be done. People need to have that basic human right of shelter over their head and food on the table.
What are we doing as humans to the other humans in our system who are not doing well? What are we doing? Where is the will? Of course, right now there's a will. That's why we are all here. But when is it going to be done? I've said it in forums like this and it's happened, but it seems as though it's always being talked about and nothing is being done. There is a sense of urgency in the north. So I'm pleading with you, for the people here, for the aboriginal people here in the north, please do something.
I always have this saying and I'm going to say it, and I don't know how appropriate it's going to be, but if this were happening to any group of people elsewhere in the world, it would be called genocide. It would be called genocide. So what are we doing here as Canadians? Why are aboriginal people, who own this land in the north, living in standards that are lower than those in the third world? I think that's all I have to say.