Thank you, Billy, and thank you for the question.
It's good to see you, and yes, I'll be there tomorrow morning. I'm flying out tonight.
I think we all know the history of Canada, how it began and how the first nations of Canada welcomed settlement into our territories. It's always been through peace and friendship. First nation people have been very good treaty partners, and that hasn't been similarly reciprocated on the part of the government. When it comes to the foundational agreements, that is the reason we have Canada. That is the reason we have the provinces. It was because of those peace and friendship treaties that were allowed to happen.
When I sit here and think about different treaties, modern and historic, they've been dealing with some of these things for 26 years. We're dealing with things that happened 125 to 150 years ago. They call them historic treaties but, for us, they're from yesterday, passed on by stories and oral history from our elders and our ancestors. We deal with the impacts of what have been the failures of the Canadian government to uphold those responsibilities as we understand them.
We have to stop looking at the written text and thinking that was what was understood at the time, because it's false and it's wrong, and we deal with those impacts. I was talking to my sister from the west coast about some of the strides that they're making in their communities because of that treaty and some of the responsibilities upheld in the document, but they're still finding challenges and still wanting a commissioner to hold the government to its responsibilities.
We have a long way to go. I think that today we have the greatest opportunity to correct those, not only because of long-standing issues with the treaty responsibilities but with all the outside forces that are affecting us: the separatism in Alberta and the things happening south of us. Today is the greatest opportunity for us to change that for the better.
I hope I answered your question.