Thank you.
I acknowledge the Algonquin people on whose ancestral lands where we gather here. I also want to acknowledge your presence and the work you are doing on this particular bill.
I want to acknowledge the presentations by my colleagues. Craig Benjamin's remarks are part of the remarks I wished to cover, and I think he's done a very capable job on the history and the role of indigenous peoples in the development of that particular UN instrument, on the work of the Human Rights Commission here in Canada, on part of the work under the Paris principles, and on the role of human rights commissions, both nationally and subnationally with provincial human rights bodies.
I attended the remarkable event in the House yesterday. I heard and saw the dignity with which the Tsilhqot'in chiefs were present, but I also saw and heard the dignity of your presentations from the parties, from the representatives who spoke. How moving that was in the context of Canadian history, both now and going back in time to the history of British Columbia, to see the dignity with which the chiefs who were executed were exonerated and to see the lifting of a heavy load from the shoulders and the backs of the Tsilhqot'in peoples ourselves and indigenous peoples in British Columbia.
I heard the apology that was extended to Tsilhqot'in peoples and that helped lift them from that place of very deep grieving and sadness. To me, it is a very significant step, and it is an important act of reconciliation. I come from north of the Tsilhqot'in people. We share the same language. We're neighbours and relatives, and have been throughout our history, and we know each other well. Their pain was really something that as children we heard about, too, with the execution of those five chiefs in Quesnel. I stepped back and listened very carefully to the six presentations that were made. It showed a remarkable turning of a chapter in our country.
In that regard, I want to talk about article 43. There are 46 articles in the declaration, and everybody wants to talk about one article, or maybe two. We have to take the 23 preambulatory paragraphs and 46 articles in the declaration and look at them together. Article 43 is the purpose of the declaration.
Craig was talking about Amnesty International and many other great non-governmental organizations, indigenous peoples, and I was there during the negotiations of the declaration over many years. I was there when Louise Arbour was the high commissioner. Our former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada was the High Commissioner for Human Rights when the declaration was approved. You should call her as a witness here. She has a remarkable depth of knowledge. She was the one who really cracked the whip, in a way, to get the declaration done. The ambassador from Peru, a remarkable chair, was able to assemble all of the disparate arguments and positions in Geneva and come up with one document. There was not consensus on everything. Right to the last minute, there were disagreements, yet we came up with the one document.
There was a vote in the Human Rights Council. I was there that day. I saw the vote. It disturbed me that Canada voted no.
Canada actually had been a very constructive partner in the development of the declaration. I need to say that. The people from Indigenous and Northern Affairs and other federal departments who were there—plus the mission in Geneva—were able to bring to bear a long process of collaboration that made the declaration possible. They were collaborating with very disparate indigenous peoples around the world, different governments across the world, and 192 states at the UN.
It was remarkable to see the vote that day. In 2006 that declaration was sent to the General Assembly in New York. It got delayed for one year, but when the time came to vote, it was adopted at the UN General Assembly. I was there as well. Following that, I spent six years—two three-year terms—as an expert member of the UN permanent forum on indigenous issues, the body that advises the United Nations on indigenous matters globally. There are 370 million indigenous people around the world.
I chaired the permanent forum for one year. It was an honour to be involved with indigenous peoples, state parties, non-governmental organizations, and UN bodies in New York.
Now I want to come back to the story about the Tsilhqot'in chiefs, the exoneration and the apology, the dignity, and that act of reconciliation. Article 43 states, “The rights recognized herein constitute the minimum standards for the survival, dignity, and well-being of the indigenous peoples of the world.” Survival, dignity and well-being....
Following the apology, there was a three-hour session with the Tsilhqot'in leadership and chiefs. A Tsilhqot'in woman stood up and for 45 minutes spoke about the Tsilhqot'in women. If you recall what the Tsilhqot'in chiefs said, they declared an act of war because their women were raped by those coming into their territory. A young girl.... We talked about the dignity and well-being of the Tsilhqot'in people. You take that concept and apply it to all indigenous peoples in this country. Bill C-262 should be supported by all parties, the same way you supported the Tsilhqot'in people in the House yesterday, because it's about the same issues.
This instrument is important to us. On February 14, 1859, the governor of the colony of British Columbia issued a proclamation saying that “[a]ll lands...and...Mines and Minerals therein, belong to the Crown in fee”. This was an act of aggression, similar to what Russia has done with the Crimean peninsula. They took over that land, so what were the people to do? They declared war.
On February 14, 2018, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau got up in the House and spoke at length. He said that we're going to turn the page, we're going to recognize the rights of indigenous peoples, we're going to implement them. I heard the words “recognition” and “implementation”. The most insidious instruments of history are the doctrines of terra nullius and the doctrine of discovery and the papal bulls that gave them moral authority through the European notions of international law in the late 1400s and the early 1500s.
We live with that today. The consequences of that are what is before us. This bill and this declaration can help turn the tide and level the playing field. That's what I want to propose to you. I haven't read any of the notes from my speech, but I really think that the presentation by the national chief was very good. I endorse that, as I've said, and I endorse all the answers to his questions, so I'm not taking any.