First, I'm going to respond to a couple of things here, having heard the Conservatives trying to frame me as giving a lifeline to the Liberals here.
First of all, it is not this committee's job to replace the process that's going on. That is a nation-to-nation process, and this committee cannot undermine that process. I cannot underscore that more.
Second, having the minister come and testify should not mean suspending the work of this committee. We have a motion with an amended date of November 20 directing the minister and the department to come to testify to this committee. I know that the Conservatives like to take these partisan shots that I'm giving lifelines and not wanting the minister to be here. That couldn't be further from the truth.
It's actually peculiar that they would put this motion forward in the middle of very important testimony—testimony that they clearly didn't want to hear—that stands up for the rights of indigenous people in this country. They say they stand up for these rights, but when they were in government they spent millions of dollars—in the tens of millions of dollars—fighting against the rights of the very people of my riding to a fishery that were supported in the courts of this country.
I find it shameful—