Mr. Speaker, I find it extremely interesting to hear the views of the hon. member, views which represent the Reform Party's position on this bill.
I also found it very interesting that the hon. member mentioned other parties are supporting this bill because those other parties do not have the strong democratic beliefs Reform Party has. Yet the views expressed to me seem so contrary to democracy.
Here we have a situation in this bill where aboriginal people have spoken out as to what they want, what they would like to have, and yet we have a party saying “what we say is much better, it should not be your chiefs, as you have decided, it should be your populace in general”.
When we talk about democracy, we have nine bands agreeing to it and four that are not. We know one principle of democracy is that majority rules. I do not know what kind of votes the Reform Party takes when it exercises democracy, but certainly to me nine out of thirteen is a majority. The fact that the other four still have the option to opt in is a very important point as well. We have to question the views surrounding the objection to the bill.
We also hear questions and commentaries, and this is a commentary. The hon. member indicated that he was afraid this system would separate aboriginal people from the mainstream of society. How much more separated can aboriginal people become from the mainstream of society under their own system of education and their own sense of control than has been the case over the many years we have tried to make aboriginal people similar to everybody else?
We have tried to “civilize”. We have tried to “assimilate”. Efforts have been made by the Canadian government over the years to do what it felt was right for aboriginal people rather than allow aboriginal people to create for themselves what they know to be in their best interest.
Now the same attitudes are coming forward again: unless it is done our way it is not right. I find this to be very disturbing. I urge very strongly members who promote that view to stop and look in a mirror and have a second thought about what they are actually saying. I urge hon. members in the House not to be swayed by those arguments as we debate and as we consider the passage of what is truly historic and important legislation.