Thank you very much, Chairperson.
Thank you to our guests today for coming.
I do have to say that today I found I had a more difficult time following what you were all saying than I've had in the past. It seemed as if there were so many different issues raised, so I'm kind of asking myself where I begin.
I want to begin here. Last night, I went to a wonderful talk here in Ottawa by Thomas King. Some of you might know him. He's a great storyteller, very often heard on CBC, and has written lots of books. Anyway, he's just written a book called The Inconvenient Indian and it's about the history of Indian people in North America.
He gives this great analogy of what's going on at the Department of Indian Affairs and how the structure is not supportive of what needs to be done. He gave this analogy of two slices of cheese, one of which is a slice of cheddar and can sort of stand up on its own, and the second is Swiss cheese with all the holes in it, and of course you try to stand it up and it just kind of folds over—