Gary Vidal at the Indigenous and Northern Affairs Committee

On November 25th, 2024. See this statement in context.

November 25th, 2024 / 4:30 p.m.

Conservative

Gary Vidal Conservative Desnethé—Missinippi—Churchill River, SK

Thank you, Chair.

I have a quick question and a quick comment.

I guess my comment back to Mr. Battiste, and maybe to the officials, would be, obviously, that the concept of free, prior and informed consent is very much an integral part of Bill C-15, our UNDRIP legislation. One of the witnesses here at this committee in September, Dr. Littlechild, referenced UNDRIP in his testimony.

My question for Mr. Fairbairn is in response to Mr. Battiste's question. In the context of the UNDRIP legislation, how do we acknowledge free, prior and informed consent? There has to be a definition there. It's legislation that has been passed. It's legislation we've adopted. How do we determine free, prior and informed consent, as it relates to UNDRIP, from a first nation, then? If the challenge is how we prescriptively define that, how do we do it for the UNDRIP legislation?

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