Hello. I'm Maheegan Armstrong. I'm a lawyer representing Nishnawbe Aski Nation.
I'm going to very quickly go through some of the amendments and the rationale behind them.
In the briefing note, we made two pretty big suggestions. One is to make sure that the law-making sections, where it talks about jurisdiction, are binding on the federal Crown. The other is to make sure that first nation laws have the force of law as federal law.
These are both used in tandem to make sure that the law-making sections of Bill C-61 are strengthened and there's a bit more certainty.
The reason why we're suggesting these is in light of a new Supreme Court of Canada case that came out in February. It was the reference case to the Act respecting First Nations, Inuit, and Métis children, youth and families that came out. The decision was rendered on February 9, which was after this bill came into the House of Commons.
We've incorporated some of that guidance from the Supreme Court of Canada case. We want to strengthen some parts of this bill with that guidance from the Supreme Court.
Thank you.