Evidence of meeting #46 for Indigenous and Northern Affairs in the 39th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was indian.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Harold Albrecht Conservative Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to follow up on that point. This situation has been evolving for over 30 years now. I'm wondering, have any of the first nations representative groups or individual communities come to the CBA for advice as to how they might proactively begin to deal with some of the challenges that will obviously be facing them?
Chair, National Aboriginal Law Section, Canadian Bar Association
The bar association tends not to act as a public legal service. For the most part we--
Conservative
Harold Albrecht Conservative Kitchener—Conestoga, ON
We are talking a lot about consultation around this table. I was just wondering whether any of the groups have sought your advice.
Chair, National Aboriginal Law Section, Canadian Bar Association
No. They would seek the advice of individual members of the CBA and their own solicitors. They haven't approached us formally for that.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Colin Mayes
If you recall the witnesses who came with AFN, their legal counsel was in attendance
Conservative
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
Could I make a comment? I think it's a good reminder to committee members that it was fairly recent that first nations were actually prevented from seeking legal counsel by law.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Colin Mayes
Right.
Madam Karetak-Lindell, do you have something you'd like to add?
Liberal
Nancy Karetak-Lindell Liberal Nunavut, NU
I have a very quick question. Would you agree that it takes more than repealing section 67 for people to start exercising their rights?
I come from an area that's not restricted by section 67, but I find that people don't exercise their rights because they don't know them. Unless we do a huge educational component so that every person in this country can know their rights, they're not going to exercise them. I think we need to do more public education, to let people know what their rights are in the first place. As I said, I come from a part of the country where people don't know many of their rights as Canadians. It takes more than legislation to make people exercise their rights.
Chair, National Aboriginal Law Section, Canadian Bar Association
I would agree with you.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Colin Mayes
Good.
Thank you very much to the witnesses. You were very informative and very knowledgeable on the subject. We really do appreciate the insights to Bill C-44.
We'll suspend now for approximately two or three minutes.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Colin Mayes
We will continue.
Committee members, I just wanted to make you aware of, first of all, the issue around the Barreau du Québec. They will be available on May 8, and we have managed to.... If you look at your updated calender, and I hope you have that, the chair will try to give them an hour in that meeting. They'll be on the panel, so they'll be part of that panel, just so you're aware of that. We have rescheduled the Indigenous Bar Association, and that is on May 10 at the same time. There are two panels that we'll be dealing with at two different times. The first hour we'll have the Indigenous Bar Association with the other three groups.
I also have the issues around the two motions, one from Madame Crowder and one from Madame Neville.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Colin Mayes
We're going to do that on Thursday, and we'll set time aside for that.
Mr. Lemay.
The Clerk of the Committee Ms. Bonnie Charron
I will distribute them again but I had already done so.
Bloc
Marc Lemay Bloc Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC
Are they the ones we have received? Are we going to deal with them on Thursday?
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Colin Mayes
Correct.
The other thing is we're still working through it. I want to assure the members that as we get through our calendar there is still opportunity for May 17, on the Thursday, to have legal experts, and we can develop that list if we wish. If you want to have a subcommittee meeting to discuss that, we can do that. Right now we can probably work through the calendar as it's laid out now and have a meeting to discuss the additions if the committee so desires additions.
Madame Crowder.
NDP
Jean Crowder NDP Nanaimo—Cowichan, BC
I'm sorry, I don't have the updated calendar. I was out of commission last week.
Did the Westbank First Nation get invited? The reason I'm asking is that they've come up a number of times as an example of a first nation that has implemented its own code and whatnot. I wonder if it might not be worthwhile hearing from somebody who has implemented their own code.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Colin Mayes
I'm looking for direction. We could refer that to the steering committee. Okay?
The other thing is there has been some discussion around the Pikangikum First Nation. There was a letter I sent to the minister in response, and I'm sure all the committee members are aware of the commitment of the Government of Canada to....
Mr. Bruinooge, is it $46 million?
