Public Safety Committee on Oct. 17th, 2017

[Peter Fragiskatos, Liberal, London North Centre, ON]

I'm through, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

That was a very short seven minutes, Mr. Fragiskatos.

Mr. Motz.

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

Thank you very much for being here today, gentlemen.

In your role, Chief, you need to deal with a lot of issues. As we know, there is one that has been an ongoing concern of yours, your people, and other Canadians: cross-border and integrity issues with respect to the transport of contraband into your reserve, off your reserve, and through your reserve and your nation, along with weapons and other illegal contraband and drugs, etc.

I'm sure you would want the measures of this particular act, Bill C-21, to help you and your people deal with those illegal activities on your land. Do you feel that these measures might help you deal with some of these concerns that you have raised?

[Grand Chief Abram Benedict]

Specifically with regard to this, to Bill C-21, I don't believe they would. There's the information sharing for people purposes—

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

It's also about goods.

[Grand Chief Abram Benedict]

Yes, but the goods you've described don't generally go through the regular means of being processed, so I'm not sure that....

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

That's true, and thank you for that, because it's a great segue to where I wanted to go.

Your concerns are obviously legitimate. Solutions are difficult. You haven't really thought of what could work. The government has a responsibility to be respectful of your nation's individuality, but it also has a responsibility to ensure that, in the broader scope of things, the intent of this legislation is followed for your benefit as well.

There is no secondary border port, as you mentioned. Do you see value in potentially moving in that direction to help follow the regulations with respect to Bill C-21, as well as to maybe help your own nation and the tracking of people? You've already identified some of the challenges, including how they don't know they're back in Quebec and think they're in the U.S. Could that alleviate some of those things you've already experienced as well as trying to follow the intent of Bill C-21?

[Grand Chief Abram Benedict]

I can assure you that there's no Mohawk who doesn't know where the border exists. As for the people who wouldn't know where they are, they're the people who are administering such programs, or the government. People know where the international borderline is—

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

I appreciate that.

[Grand Chief Abram Benedict]

—so it's not that we would need a border inspection station there to help identify it.

I can assure you that we face enough challenges with the one that is in our community. To imply that we should perhaps put others there would not be something that would be beneficial. In fact, the only people they would be processing at that point would probably be 99% Mohawks, so—

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

You yourself said, sir, that one of the challenges your own people face is that they come through Cornwall, go through New York, and go back into Quebec, and it may impact their ability to get health services and many other programs that are Canadian-administered. It would seem reasonable that if there were some way to ensure that the Canadian authorities knew that people from your nation were back in Canada, it would be beneficial to your people.

[Grand Chief Abram Benedict]

The people would never agree to be tracked like that.

Again, the imposition of the Canada-United States border is not something that we asked for as a people. To say now that in order to keep the benefits that every other Canadian enjoys, they now must be able to register in some sort of system will not be received very well by our people.

[Glen Motz, Conservative, Medicine Hat—Cardston—Warner, AB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Thank you.

Mr. Picard, you have the floor for five minutes.

[Michel Picard, Liberal, Montarville, QC]

I'll start with an apology, not knowing what is on the field, so bear with me and, with all respect, understand my sometimes naive questions. Do I understand that being able to go from orange to yellow and back and forth is part of the problem?

[Grand Chief Abram Benedict]

It's not a problem. The problem, though, would be if this legislation were implemented, because then you're tracking when people leave and when they return, and in those two parts you have no way to track when they return.

[Michel Picard, Liberal, Montarville, QC]

I understand that many people who live in the orange sector have to go into the yellow sector—

[Grand Chief Abram Benedict]

Yes.

[Michel Picard, Liberal, Montarville, QC]

—and the other way around. Do I understand that it's not possible to travel between those islands and the land by different ways other than by road?

[Grand Chief Abram Benedict]

Those means would be by boat—

[Michel Picard, Liberal, Montarville, QC]

Yes.

[Grand Chief Abram Benedict]

—but we'd need to have boats that could carry 50 to 100 people at a time.

[Michel Picard, Liberal, Montarville, QC]

A system of transportation by water—

[Grand Chief Abram Benedict]

By river, yes.

[Michel Picard, Liberal, Montarville, QC]

—is not developed enough to have a constant back-and-forth?