Mr. Speaker, there is no disputing the historic facts of the residential school system and the harm it has done to many Indian families.
How was this allowed to happen? Canadian Indians were a people separated from Canadian society by law. They lacked the protections due as a right to all other people in the country.
Today many Indian people are reporting instances of mismanagement on reserves. Poor health, substandard housing and social dysfunction are endemic. This situation has come to pass under the Indian Act, the department of Indian affairs, and separate special status. Today, as in the past, it is anathema to point these things out without someone levelling charges of racism.
The minister has a huge bureaucracy with a budget of billions of dollars and responsibility for the welfare of all aboriginals and northerners.
We in the Reform Party will continue to point out their failures and weaknesses and to propose alternatives. Canada's aboriginals and indeed all Canadians deserve no less.