Let me say this from the outset: The courts have already confirmed that provision that you read to us. The courts are using the UN declaration—referencing the UN declaration—to interpret domestic law, and that's been going on for many years. Our human rights tribunals, provincial and federal, were using the UN declaration even before it was adopted by the UN General Assembly.
What Bill C-15 does is it confirms what the courts have been saying, and the interpretation in how courts have been using international human rights instruments like the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
What this bill will add, in my view, is that.... As a member of Parliament, you know that the Minister of Justice has an obligation under section 4.1 of the Department of Justice Act to make sure that any legislation, before it is introduced, is consistent with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. We don't have the equivalent for aboriginal rights and treaty rights in this country. Bill C-15 will provide that.