Mr. Speaker, it is a privilege to stand here today to enter this debate. As Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, I will start by repeating what the Prime Minister said yesterday vis-à-vis aboriginal people:
As it concerns the aboriginal people of Canada, my government is clearly on record as respecting their aspirations. We recognize the unique legal position of aboriginal people, including the protection of aboriginal and treaty rights in the Canadian Constitution and the inherent right of self-government.
What does that mean? It means we must listen, and I address the separatists, when Grand Chief Matthew Coon-Come of the Cree says that ideological separatists will not treat them like cattle, moving them from one territory to the other. We must listen when the Inuit vote 95 per cent no and when the Crees vote 96.3 per cent no, and when the Montagnais vote 99 per cent no. We will listen.
The Prime Minister has proposed that Quebec be a distinct society. He has proposed that we will make no constitutional change that affects Quebec without consent and he has delivered. I want to be here when the leader of the Bloc stands up and does not support this because it tells me his agenda is simple separation. It tells me that when he looks out his window to look at the French fact in Canada, the only thing he sees is his own reflection.
Maybe I am losing it. I sit here day after day and see the hon. member for Bourassa who is from Chile. He is a political refugee who has come to this country. Oddly enough, this country Canada is an Iroquois name that means the village. Quebec is a Micmac name which means where the water overflows. The hon. member for Bourassa sits here and he debates and thinks in a British institution whether he should be called by a Mohawk name or an Iroquois name, while taxpayers pay his salary. If he thinks long enough and gets re-elected he will get a pension. Only in this country Canada would we be that tolerant. What a democracy, but that is a fact.
Oddly enough, 15 years ago I gave my maiden speech in this House. I was sitting over there. The maiden speech is a member's most important speech. You come with your life experience and you want to say what is important to you. My maiden speech was about the French Canadian fact in Canada, their contribution to the national character of this country. I had come off the CRTC where I sat with Rhéal Therrien who was the vice-chairman then. He would say to me: "Ron, a country is not a piece of paper; it is a frame of mind".
It was so important to me to get my life experience on the record. As the member of Parliament for Sault Ste. Marie I spoke about the French Canadian fact in Canada. I spoke about the importance of biculturalism and multiculturalism. To that I would add the culture and the aspirations of the First Nations people of this country.
You see me every day fighting for aboriginal rights, but I fought just as hard for French Canadian rights because I come from a part of this country with 700,000 franco-Ontarians. You do not want to even seem to acknowledge that there are places-