There are gaps in the term “indigenous”, so there's room there for identity fraud to happen, and there are benefits to claiming that identity. Obviously—with the standing committee here—the economic procurement strategy is a great benefit if someone can get their company listed on that registry. That is one benefit, but we've seen other identity frauds in education and in the arts. Specifically, in education, there are people who have advanced their entire careers to become doctoral or Ph.D. candidates under the guise of indigenous identity fraud. The heart of the problem really lies in term “indigenous” having kind of been a catch-all phrase for everyone. The other issue with it is that “Métis” is not defined. In fact, I beg to ask this committee where the definition of “Métis” is; I don't see it. I also see in recommendations 25 and 26 that the Métis get put on the same level as the first nations and Inuit, the three partners under section 35. Not having that legal definition of “Métis” is highly problematic, and it's a deep problem.
Question were previously asked about the Assembly of First Nations. I couldn't even say that the governance structure of the AFN would be the same as that of the organization of my friend here—who is running a proper governance structure under ITK—because the AFN is actually a non-profit organization that might speak to the rights of first nation holders if they choose to enter that avenue. It gets really convoluted right from there, and you have Métis organizations that are non-profit entities or societies under the Societies Act that purport to hand out rights to ordinary Canadian citizens who may choose to seek an accolade or a benefit from claiming that identity. That is the heart of the fraud, and that's what needs to stop at this committee level. If that definition of “Métis” were further defined, I don't think we would have the issue we have right now. A lot of it also has to do with self-identification. Without a proper definition of “Métis”, this problem is going to run rampant until it's resolved.