Mr. Speaker, I rise with a certain amount of sadness. I thought I would hear something more profound, more healing tonight.
Nine months ago when we arrived I was given the red book. I come from a steel town with not a lot of aboriginal people. Within the red book there was a map, a direction. Part of that map involved exactly what we are doing tonight.
I went to the Yukon. I went north three times. I met with the Yukon people. I met women who talked about Bill C-31 status with tears in their eyes. I met elders who thought that they would never have any honour given back to them. Poverty, you have no idea of the poverty or the housing.
When the white man came to Canada-and the aboriginal people use that term not in a derogatory way; they mean non-aboriginal people-we came with a certain amount of avarice. We came here for our property which they were holding temporarily for us for 10,000 years.
We went there and we said we would do the honourable thing. We hired the best negotiators. I wish I had them today. If you look at the 11 treaties, what do they have? A suit of clothes for the head man, a suit of clothes for the chief, a medal which tarnishes, a few acres for each family of five, $8, $9 or $10 a year. We would take the equivalent of half of provinces. There was one thing honoured in those treaties-