Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to our guests for being here today.
My questions will be mostly for the Human Rights commission folks. I'd like to thank you in particular for being here today.
In 1977 Pierre Trudeau introduced the Canadian Human Rights Act. This act intended to protect human rights of Canadians by allowing them to file complaints of discrimination if they felt their rights had been violated. The 11 prohibited grounds of discrimination were.... You probably know the list. What is interesting about that particular act is that section 67 had an exemption for the Indian Act. People who lived under the Indian Act weren't able to use the human rights tribunal. The exception was repealed in 2008 under the Conservative government, which brought first nations into a level playing field when it came to human rights violations in this country.
I was hoping that you could address some of this. We hear all the time that indigenous rights are human rights. If that is the case, do we not have the mechanisms in place already to recognize all the things that are in this little booklet on the rights of indigenous peoples?
Thank you.