Minister, you've referred a fair bit to the whole-of-government approach that is very important for your department, so I want to just reflect on that for a moment.
Take, for example, the lawyers who represent Canada in court, as they have been this week, fighting first nations like Shamattawa and Tataskweyak Cree Nation in my region in northern Manitoba. In arguments filed with the court and obtained by my office, lawyers hired by the Liberal government argued that first nations don't have a right to clean drinking water, and that seeks to blame first nations for this government's own failures.
I struggle to take this seriously when the same Liberal-hired lawyers say that any proclamation is just context-specific, which, as one lawyer explained to me, is basically just legalese for political theatre. We have the Prime Minister, who has been quoted as saying, “Everyone in Canada should have access to clean water. The Government of Canada continues to work in partnership with First Nations”. However, your government's lawyers deny that there is a partnership. Former minister Marc Miller said, “But one thing has not changed—the right for every individual to have access to potable water.” He said that they were determined to ensure that this right was upheld for everyone. Once again, Liberal lawyers this week argued that this right should not, in fact, be upheld for everyone.
You've come here to talk about your anti-racism strategy that incorporates a significant piece on anti-indigenous racism. You've talked about the importance of a whole-of-government approach, and yet your government is fighting 59 first nations, including some of the poorest first nations in Canada that do not have clean drinking water. You're telling them that your commitments don't actually apply to them, that they are context-specific, that your government does not actually have an obligation to provide clean drinking water. Is that not an example of systemic racism at play? Does that not fly in the face of the commitment to reconciliation your government has made? How can you stand by with a commitment to a whole-of-government approach, with a commitment to anti-indigenous racism and action on that front, when your own government is denying one of the most basic human rights to first nations—the right to clean drinking water?