Mr. Speaker, yesterday in Goose Bay, Labrador, Innu protesters delayed the start of public hearings into low-level military flight training over their traditional hunting grounds. The Innu claim that the flights disrupt wildlife in the area, which is their major source of food, and contaminate the environment.
These public hearings are being held to evaluate a flawed Department of National Defence environmental impact statement that, according to scientists, contains more than 130 deficiencies, including the proposal to create one giant training zone and the use of thin aluminum strips that make animals sick when they eat them. The Innu have called into question the timing of the hearings, and the fairness and independence of the assessment panel conducting the review.
Therefore I call on the government to immediately suspend the hearings until the concerns of the Innu are addressed, and to consider the advisability of ending all low-level flight training over the territory of the Innu. The Innu people never ceded their land to Canada for military purposes. They have lived off this land in peace for 9,000 years and they deserve fair and humane treatment.