Well, it depends on what the purpose of the bill is. I'm not clear yet on what the purpose is. In my mind, I see the purpose as being the implementation of the calls to action. That's the primary focus, at least. However, I know there are what some people call “weasel words”. There are some very broad words elsewhere that say it's to deal with everything, but what is that “everything”? What does that mean?
If it's going to deal with more than just the calls to action, perhaps it should address the issues you raised. For the Métis nation, there are so many issues we need raised, aside from the residential schools issue. There's still the dispossession of our lands and resources through the Dominion Lands Act and the scrip system that came about—in other words, the allocation of lands on an individual basis—to destroy our nation. It was done in such a shabby way and benefited white speculators.
In fact, in the 2003 Blais case, the Supreme Court of Canada, without being asked, referred to the scrip speculation and devaluation as “a sorry chapter in our nation's history”. Even they know it. Everybody knows we got screwed, yet we're excluded from specific land claim processes. We're not engaged in the processes set up by the federal government.
We decided to take action in northwest Saskatchewan in 2019, but the federal government is ganging up on us with the Métis nation of Alberta and the Métis nation of Saskatchewan, saying that as individuals, we're aggrieved. We have no right to be in court. Only these provincial bodies can be in court on section 35 rights.
The federal government is fighting us on a lot of issues, but they should be opening the door. I have written to former prime ministers Paul Martin and Harper to try to set up some kind of royal commission to deal with the land rights issues of the Métis and to give us money to take it to court and let the courts decide. Nothing's happening on that. When it comes to the Métis, we're not even afterthoughts. We're just brought along.
We have benefited; don't take me wrong. We were part of the legislation I referred to—health legislation, languages legislation, child and family services. We were part of the codevelopment of it. That's coming from, I think, the work that was taking place in the TRC. We benefited from it. We didn't say, “No, we're not going to benefit”, but it wasn't aimed at us. We had to be brought along, because they wanted the three aboriginal peoples contained in Canada's Constitution. We have benefited, to some degree.
Again, our big issues are not addressed. We're saying we don't want this non-profit body or organization to usurp the role of our legitimate governments in resolving our issues, which are critical to us.