Thank you very much. I really appreciate you coming here today, Mr. Moran and Ms. Brown.
My father went to residential school. I have uncles who were in residential school.
We're actually really getting down to the wire here with this bill. There will have to be a date for the next witnesses coming to testify. We need a date and we need it soon. I don't think we can spend a lot of time with generalities about what we should be doing. I don't think the people on the committee are going to be able to come up with that date. We're going to rely on the survivors and the organizations that are best positioned to tell us what it is we should be doing.
I have also proposed a bill about June 2, Bill C-318, put forward by survivors from Manitoba, which was the release of the TRC report. One of the issues that we face is, if we continue as indigenous peoples to only be celebrated or remembered for all the bad that happens to us, what does that create among our young people?
If we always send a message to our young people that we are simply always survivors.... I like a national aboriginal peoples day, because it's actually a day of celebration. But so few Canadians actually take the time to celebrate. Wouldn't it be lovely if we actually did take that day to highlight everything that's good about our cultures? It would be taking the time to remember, but also have a day of celebration about who we are so we can give hope to our young people. That is often a message I don't hear from organizations and people. I think it's a poor message to send to our young people, because if young people don't have hope, what type of future are we going to create for ourselves, not only among indigenous peoples but for the nation?