Thanks to our panellists.
I've felt a certain malaise when dealing with and discussing this issue. I certainly feel it as an indigenous person, and I've expressed that preoccupation and concern in this committee, because this process is so unprincipled and not based on human rights or the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Essentially, we're being asked to try to improve on fundamentally racist and discriminatory legislation. This legislation would just carry on as racist and fundamentally discriminatory, if I hear you right.
The other difficulty I have as a member of Parliament is that in this mandate as a member of Parliament, I also have a duty to uphold the rule of law, and upholding the rule of law means respecting the Constitution, which includes the charter, by the way. In that sense, I would have a very difficult time to stand up and support this bill because of that. It is still discriminatory and still—I'll use one of the words that was used here—“under-inclusive”. It's discriminatory. There's a huge problem here, and I understand the constitutional and legal issues that were raised during these presentations.
One of the other aspects I would like to hear from you on is the fact that this bill stems from the Senate, an unelected body that has no historic relationship with indigenous peoples in this country. That relationship belongs under the royal proclamation and treaties to the crown, represented by the Prime Minister, who promised, by the way, a new relationship, and who promised, by the way, the implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In my view, any new legislative initiative should be based on those principles, and this is not happening. At the very least, it should have been the Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs who introduced this bill, and that's not where we're at.
I'd like to hear.... I basically agree with most of what was said here, and I'm in favour of an extension so that we can do this right, because that is the basis of respect, in my view. Additionally, on the promise or commitment made by the minister that is coming up in phase two, it so happens that after a year of this government, I don't really trust those kinds of commitments anymore. I don't really trust the promises that are being made by this government. I'd like to hear you on this strange process that we're following here with this bill coming from the Senate.
That's for anyone.