Yes,. Thank you.
My friend here is right in the sense that it's the spirit of the Jay Treaty because, as we all know, the Jay Treaty has no force or effect in Canada currently as a result of both judicial decisions saying Great Britain was a signatory and not Canada, and we've never passed enabling legislation to that effect. So there's that, but it's the principle behind it.
When you roll back the clock and you look at the fact that, back in 1794 when Great Britain, in what we know as Canada, and the United States were establishing a border, they realized they had whole bunch of indigenous people trading all over the place. We have, for instance, the Mohawk in what we now know as Ontario, Quebec, and New York. We have the Athabasca, who are in Alaska and Yukon. We have the Coast Salish in B.C. and Washington. We have the Colville Confederated Tribes and Okanagan in Washington and B.C. respectively. I could go all the way across the border and find first nations that have been cut in two. Some of them are vehemently trying to re-establish their links, but it's very hard because, of course, back then, when you roll back the time, you see the fact that the federal perspective on indigenous people back then was very “You're not citizens, you're not necessarily even people, and through manifest destiny, we're taking over.”
It's this new field that we're looking at to revisit the past. We can't move forward without acknowledging that what happened with respect to the Great Britain and the United States was an acknowledgement of the pre-existing economic right of trade, indigenous inter-tribal trade, embodied in the Jay Treaty.
I'll quote the Jay Treaty, if I could, just a very short little section:
...the Indians dwelling on either side of the said Boundary Line freely to pass and repass by Land, or Inland Navigation, into the respective Territories and Countries of the Two Parties on the Continent of America (the Country within the Limits of the Hudson's Bay Company only excepted) and to navigate all the Lakes, Rivers, and waters thereof, and freely to carry on trade and commerce with each other.
That is what it's all about, and to respect that is part of reconciliation, if Canada wants to put their money where their mouth is. That's why I'm saying pass legislation like what's happening in the United States with respect to the Jay Treaty. I mentioned the fact that the Jay Treaty was revoked because of the War of 1812 and then, as a result of a stalemate, the United States said, “Hey, why don't we pass legislation to support the principles of the Jay Treaty?”, which they did.
Section 289 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, as amended in 1965, has embodied the spirit of the Jay Treaty in the United States, so it's not hard to imagine that Canada could pass legislation enabling inter-tribal trade between the nations and just clear that up, because the moment you do, then all the other departments have to get in line, customs, excise, and port authority. All of those organizations have to say, “Okay, great. Parliament wants this, we're going to make this happen.” Without that, you can see it, in the history of trying to move indigenous trade, getting hamstrung by the departments.