Thank you, honourable Chairman.
Yes, I was in the courtroom for those three days. I watched the expression of the judge. I watched the expressions of the people there. I saw Justice Canada present their case. Mind you, they're trying to block an action. Their whole point of being there is to dismiss that action, so they're going to be saying things like that.
I know that the veterans are horrified. But for me, as an aboriginal.... If you've sat in any courtrooms with aboriginal things going on.... The government says all those same things, including that they don't exist.
Setting that aside, we look upon.... There's a civil-military covenant, and it exists because the governor and the Privy Council have the authority to declare war. The governor, on the advice of the Prime Minister and Privy Council.... That's where the Canadian Forces are deployed, whatever actions they're going to take.
The relationship between the governor and Privy Council and members of the Canadian Armed Forces, who are taking the oath and provided unlimited liability, is a fiduciary relationship. And that's where it comes in. That's the connection between the civil.... The government is transitional. Canada is the people and also the honour of the crown, which is this other part up here. Both of them have fiduciary responsibility.