I can say, from my experience participating internationally, that many indigenous peoples turned to the international arena when there were challenges that they were facing domestically and could not find sufficient resolution.
What I have seen and heard, and even what I continue to hear today when I hear people speaking about Bill C-15, is that it's time to recognize these basic, fundamental, inherent rights of indigenous peoples. We can't keep treating indigenous peoples as lesser peoples. That's why I read out those preambular paragraphs. It's really time for Canada to recognize indigenous peoples as people. There's too much of Canadian law that is based on these racist ideas...in Johnson v. M'Intosh, back in 1823, that indigenous peoples were fierce savages whose occupation was war.
It really should be now in 2021 a time when we start rejecting those ideas and work with indigenous peoples to realize these fundamental human rights.
I think importantly that this bill has a lot of wisdom in that it's not just saying, okay, we're accepting UNDRIP, but it's actually forcing us to come to the table, sit down and come up with a plan to implement it. On these concerns that are being raised, the national action plan, this is the time and place to hash out some of these questions. It has built in the bill itself, in the legislation, a way to address these concerns and not to just say we're concerned that there might be impacts, but to study and come up with a plan that ensures that indigenous peoples and Canadians benefit from development.