Thank you, Mr. Chair.
First off, let me begin by acknowledging that I am speaking to you from the unceded lands of the Algonquin people in Ottawa.
I want to thank the panel, and particularly my good friend Romeo Saganash. We dearly miss him in Parliament, but I know he's not that far away when we need to reach him.
Thank you, Romeo, for your enormous leadership.
I was able to witness your work around Bill C-262 from the time you introduced it to the time it passed the House, and the enormous work you put into it. I want to thank you for that and, of course, the work leading up to it with the development of UNDRIP.
I want to get a sense from you, Romeo, about the type of engagement you did leading up to Bill C-262. You were on this committee before, and when we travelled as a committee to many parts of Canada, people would come up and say, “Romeo, you came here this summer. You talked to us.”
You had extensive engagements throughout the process of Bill C-262. Can you maybe give us a sense of how deep that was throughout the time that you were developing this bill?