Thank you very much.
As an indigenous person who is coming to you from an indigenous community, I really do support MP Fergus's wording around this. I do not feel that “systemic racism” is a popular term that we're using because it's popular recently. I believe it's an acknowledgement of what's going on in society and an acknowledgement and a realization that things need to be done.
From the judges' perspective.... Three years ago, I was the treaty education lead for Nova Scotia and was invited by all of the Atlantic federal judges to give a one-hour presentation on reconciliation. These are things that judges are currently doing.
What I think MP Fergus is doing gives more clarity to what was meant by “social context” in the past, and it's not changing the legislation. It's just putting more clarity into the usage of “systemic racism” and “systemic discrimination”. I applaud him and will support him on this.
Thank you.