It's unacceptable. We are hoping that in the future this country will create legislation, or will create enforcement mechanisms for existing legislation, to treat this issue for what it is—fraudulent activity.
We do have growing case law. Just this year, an individual has been sentenced to federal prison, a three-year sentence, for her role in defrauding Nunavut Tunngavik. It's too bad Nunavut Tunngavik is not able to speak about this today. We also know that in the United States there have been cases where individuals, groups or collectives who have fraudulently identified as indigenous peoples have been sentenced and served time in jail.
Fraud is fraud. Some of this meets the threshold of millions of dollars. It should be treated with the same consequence that any other sort of fraud within the business community is dealt with. We look forward to strengthening the enforcement mechanisms in relation to this scenario, which is, frankly, growing. If it is not checked, it will become an existential crisis within this country for the delineation between who is indigenous and who is not and another form of colonization where those who are not indigenous are taking material advantage from indigenous peoples.