I'm Nicole Demers. I'm the member of Parliament for Laval, Quebec. I never knew anything about the aboriginal people except what they told us in school about cowboys and Indians—I'm from an urban setting—until I met Ellen Gabriel. I've been working very closely for the last six years with Ellen, ever since I met her, and she taught me and I am awed by all the work that you do. I am awed by all the generosity that you share. I am awed by everything you are able to do with so little, and I am very humble coming here today to meet. We are here to learn. We don't want to do things for you, but we want you to tell us what we can do with you.
To me it is very important that we change the way things have been done for so long and that we stop being paternalistic toward aboriginal people and start seeing this as sharing together. We're sharing territory. We're sharing the riches of those territories as well, which we should do. We should share in everything.
I am very pleased to be here and very happy to meet you.
Thank you.