Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I think this is a really interesting discussion. Our witnesses have all been very good in presenting different perspectives.
My belief, though, is that we're in a state of debating Marshall and other first nations treaty rights. I think Professor Metallic has a very good understanding of the rights and the obligations, and the need to work together and consult.
Professor Rodon, you are focusing on first nations. Today, we are discussing the Atlantic fisheries. I think that you are somewhat mistaken when you say that the Supreme Court of Canada was too restrictive in the Marshall decision.
Professor Wicken, I think you're also offering a pretty straight-up view of the decisions to date. As Professor Metallic has said, the challenge or the problem is that there's no one taking the lead on the dialogue and speaking to resolve this situation. That, I think, is the real problem. It's the inaction of the federal government. Professor Metallic just said it was Canada. Again, that responsibility is the federal government's, and in particular, the federal minister's. We have a federal minister who has been hiding from traditional fishers on the east coast. She has been hiding from first nations communities, and now she's hiding from this committee.
Mr. Chair, I'm going to table, in both official languages, a motion that the clerk is receiving right now. It reads as follows:
That the committee request the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard to appear for no fewer than two hours as a witness for the committee's current study titled “Implementation of Mi'Kmaq Treaty Fishing Rights to Support a Moderate Livelihood”, and;
That the committee suspend future meetings of its current study until the Minister appears as requested, with the department officials requested.
Chair, I table that motion to this committee so that we can hear from the Minister of Fisheries and her officials to begin to get some answers from the Government of Canada on this important topic and so that the minister's hiding will finally end.