Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And welcome to you, Mary Simon. I'm very glad you're here. It was I who urged the committee to bring you here, and I'm very proud to tell my fellow colleagues that you hail from Nunatsiavut, the translation of which, as I understand it, is “our beautiful land”. Thank you for coming, and thank you for all the work you do.
I find it disconcerting as a Canadian, knowing the effort and the length of time that goes into land claims negotiations—I know it was over 30 years in the case of Nunatsiavut—that you end up having to sue the government to implement them. I know what it takes for people to sign this kind of agreement, because it is a permanent decision. I'm extremely disheartened to know that has happened, and also that the government has failed—one of the few countries in the world that has failed—to sign on to the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. It makes it very hard to see a partnership coming under these circumstances.
Is the failure to sign the UN declaration meaningful in practical ways, other than the symbolic importance? Does that have any effect on the rights of the Inuit, or is it something that's more important from a recognition effect?