Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I guess we have. Do we have specifics on that? Valerie Phillips?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Right. Well, I'll begin, but the Deputy Chief Commissioner actually has that file and he'll have the statistics. We've had a part of and a whole year of two fiscal years. During that period of time, we have received in the neighbourhood of over 30 complaints since the repeal.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Now, I've just been reminded by my colleague that we cannot receive cases like that until June of 2011.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Well, provided that it is a service, yes. It would flow. The one would flow towards band councils as well, the definition of service, yes.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm not sure that I'm understanding the question--

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Oh, my colleague would be pleased to--

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  With the greatest of respect, you are in a complex area with a tight timeline. The bill does appear to respond to the narrow order of the British Columbia Court of Appeal. As you've said, and as we've all said, it will rectify some but not all of the discrimination. I found the

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  --for their advice.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll give an example generically and then I can move to Bill C-3 as well. That means we do not receive complaints.... Let me put it in a positive light. We have jurisdiction over complaints if they are based on one of our 11 enumerated grounds--religion, age, sex, family status,

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The latter, I would say. It can look like a bit of a patchwork, really, because there isn't a commission in every jurisdiction. For example, in British Columbia, there is just a tribunal, so one goes straight to the tribunal. You don't have your complaints screened by a commissio

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm going to turn to my deputy chief commissioner, David Langtry. We have analyzed this quite closely. There is an association called the Canadian Association of Statutory Human Rights Agencies, of which we are a member, and we are working collectively on this very point. Would

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  There are three of us here, so Michael gets a pass. Michael is not a lawyer. Valerie, would you like to comment on that?

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The greater issue for us is whether we will have jurisdiction. We've heard testimony before this committee that seems to suggest that individuals could complain about status to us. At the current time, they can. We receive the complaints and then we either dismiss them or send th

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  In my view--and of course I've been a member of the bar for over 30 years--if a legal issue can be referred or dealt with or clarified in an act of Parliament, that's far better than asking the Sharon McIvors of the world to go forward to make the law.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  That's right.