Good morning, everyone.
I'm here today with my stepdaughter, Deborah Serafinchon. I prepared a genealogy. I also prepared written speaking notes but this morning I forgot them on the table. I'll provide them to the clerk.
I want to pass around, though, the genealogy of Deborah Serafinchon, to make the point that Deborah is not a registered Indian, nor is she a Sawridge First Nation band member.
On both sides of her lineage she descends from treaty signer Charles Nisoteesis. Her lineage is impeccable in terms of her first nations status, post-treaty. I invite you to compare her situation to the situation of, say, a non-aboriginal woman who married in, pre-Bill C-31 of 1985, acquired status and membership, divorced long ago from the Indian husband who himself enfranchises pre-Bill C-31, and she and her child are registered status Indians and band members under section 6(1)(a).
While Deborah is not registered at all, it is not for want of trying. In 2001, Deborah applied to the Department of Indian Affairs and she was told that there was a backlog; it was delayed.
She then applied to the Lesser Slave Lake Indian Regional Council in 2002. They administer the Indian registration program for INAC and they're governed by a board of chiefs. She submitted her application, together with DNA evidence that I and my children provided so she could prove her paternity, because my husband, her father, died in 1997. Deborah had found him just before his death, as she did her mother, just before her death. She did not know her genealogy because she was placed in the child welfare system.
The response that Deborah received was, “You need to go to some of the Sawridge First Nation members, the surviving siblings of Walter, and get them to swear a statement that you are his daughter.” That is ridiculous. She had DNA evidence. The surviving siblings had no idea who he slept with and when. Their evidence did not exist on that point. They all were students at Indian residential school, and this fractured relationships. Some of them had moved away a long time before.
To ask that is oppressive. It's a form of administrative violence. They were reluctant because they were afraid of high impact.
In March 1985, I appeared before your predecessor committee on behalf of Treaty 8. Their brief, which was provided to the clerk, spoke at length about high impact, and there was a very real concern then.
Sharon McIvor is absolutely right when she says that we have nothing but a trail of broken promises when it comes to, “Trust us, we're going to follow up.” They don't. This has happened three times. Three times, you're out.
I read, on June 2, that the minister is opposing the amendments that came from the Senate on the basis of a concern about impact. I want to say to you that this is disingenuous and dishonourable. The crown, Canada, the lawmakers of Canada—you—have a duty to be honourable in your dealings with our people. That is from the Supreme Court of Canada, a duty to be honourable.
It is disingenuous because after the Treaty No. 8 brief, my community, a notorious community seen as the gatekeeper.... CBC's The Fifth Estate did a documentary targeting my late husband as a gatekeeper. That came out in June 1997, just before we were to argue an appeal resulting from the decision that came from the Federal Court in the first trial. One of the grounds was reasonable apprehension of bias of the trial judge in making statements that Indians were childlike compared to white people, who were adult-like; that Indian men were the beads-and-buckskin boys just after the crown's shilling; and that oral history evidence was ancestor worship, propaganda at its worst.
We succeeded on the appeal, but we were forced into a second trial, and in that second trial the crown participated vigorously, aggressively, and with a great deal of hostility toward us. They brought in four special interest groups and paid them to participate. Central to the litigation was impact, as well as nature's laws, indigenous laws. What is it that we govern ourselves by? What are the legal norms that govern our behaviour toward one another and toward all life? That's documented.
I remember the crown lawyer saying, “Where is your statute book? Your laws don't exist. We have statute books.” That's the mindset.
In any event, we never got to deal with these issues, because there was an attack on the lawyers representing the plaintiffs, and I was one of them. I lived in hell for five years. I bet you, if I were to sit down with Sharon McIvor and some of the other women and we compared our stories, we would see that there has been a state-sponsored quarrel here that's gone on for way too long, and it needs to stop.
It is disingenuous for the minister, in my opinion, to now say, “Oh, we're concerned about impact.” You didn't follow up on impact in 1985 in response to the Treaty No. 8 brief. You had an opportunity to deal with us on impact in the litigation, and you refused to. Instead, you turned your guns elsewhere.
It's also disingenuous because now, under the Daniels decision, Métis are section 91(24) responsibility. We are all under the same tent, so what are we doing here? Are we moving the chairs on the deck of the Titanic? The feds are responsible. Section 91(24) is for all aboriginal people, so let's not play that game of whack-a-mole.
With respect to INAC's position on services and programs—
Am I done?