I wholeheartedly agree with you. It's a great statement in terms of exactly where we would need to go. There's of course a truth and reconciliation commission working right now in the country dealing with residential schools and specific aspects of that. But reconciliation, in my opinion, is about reconciling the history of aboriginal people with the Canadian public, not with governments. The government is fairly educated about what happened. It's the Canadian public in general.
The 150th anniversary provides a great opportunity to share information about what really went on in a neutral fashion, and how we have arrived at this position and how our country was built as it is today. It explains a lot of the things to young Canadians, and even young aboriginal Canadians, who aren't sometimes aware of their own history as well, about why, perhaps, there is a blockade going on over here, or why aboriginal people are protesting there, or why we're in court seeking a land claim on x number of issues. I think it's critical for the rest of Canada to provide that support to its aboriginal population and that it learns and goes through the process.
The friendship centres are a huge network within this country, in 119 urban centres. It's the largest in the world. It's a best practice in the world. We often get called to make presentations about how we're structured and govern, and that sort of thing.
We have 2.5 million points of contact with non-aboriginal and aboriginal people through our programs every year. It's a great way to get the word out as well. Part of the education goes to the aboriginal population and part goes to the non-aboriginal population as well. It's a great milestone or touchstone by which to start educating the rest of Canada about our history.