Mr. Speaker, I wish I could say that I am delighted to enter this debate, but I cannot because I am so concerned about what is happening to our country.
I want to tell the House why I became a member of the Reform Party. There were a number of reasons. One reason was the basic bedrock principle of all decent democracies in the world, the equality of all citizens. When I see what is happening here and the mishandling of this issue, not only by this government but by successive governments over the last 130 years, I am deeply concerned.
I am quoting directly from the Reform Party when I say that we believe in true equality for Canadian citizens, with equal rights and responsibilities for all. That is one of the things that attracted me to the Reform Party. When I first joined the Reform Party I realized that the Conservatives of the day and the Liberals before them had totally violated that basic principle in many different areas. I think it is absolutely shameful that the present government, the present leadership in our country, is totally unwilling to face this issue head on and do something right about it.
I need to take a few minutes to talk about process. People who have been watching on television have observed that in the last few minutes there have been several occasions when members of the Reform Party have tried to extend the debate for today. We have asked to continue the debate because we anticipate that the government, like the NDP government in B.C., wants to jam this bill through before too many people find out about it.
That is a violation, again, of a very basic principle of democracy. In a democracy the governed must accept the governance of the country. In other words, we have to have consensus among the people for the laws that are being passed.
There have been other occasions when a government has, within the rules of the House, which I say are dysfunctional, passed different laws and used the rules of the House, the ones that make it dysfunctional, to jam things through which it knows do not have the majority support of the people, and our democracy is crumbling. The best example I can think of is the GST. Former Prime Minister Mulroney not only jammed the thing through this House, he even evicted from his party several members who had the nerve to respect the wishes of their constituents and vote against it. He had the gall, in my opinion, to appoint extra senators to the other place whose only qualification for office was that they could stand on command and vote in favour of what has now become the most hated tax in the country.
The principle that we are missing is that the majority of Canadians who opposed that tax had it right.
I think it is arrogant in the extreme for a government to say “Here we are, a small group of people, and we know best”. We heard it from the NDP member from Kamloops earlier who said “I am not here to represent my constituents”. I am paraphrasing him of course. “I am here to make wise decisions on their behalf because they just don't understand”.
With respect to the Nisga'a agreement, we have found that particularly in the province of British Columbia where the people will be most profoundly affected by this agreement immediately, as well as across Canada where the effects will be felt later as they accumulates, the people do not support the agreement in large numbers. We are talking of a disagreement level which exceeds the number of people who were opposed to the GST. We are finding that support for this agreement is not there among the people.
Let us face it, there cannot be an agreement without two parties. There cannot be an agreement just because the leaders of the Nisga'a have agreed to it. Forty per cent of the Nisga'a people, when they voted on it, seriously questioned it. About 90% of the other side of the agreement, namely the other citizens of British Columbia, the non-natives, are saying “We do not agree with this treaty”.
Therefore it bears slowing down. It means that it is incumbent on the government not to shut down debate, as it did a few minutes ago when we asked if the debate could be extended tonight before it invokes closure and all of those silly things. Government members stood and said no. There were not enough Liberals in the House to stop it. They needed 15. That is shameful. We are dealing with an issue that has long term implications into the next millennium for the country.
There are not 15 Liberals in the House to stand to say they do not want the Reform Party or other members of parliament to debate this matter tonight. That is a shame. However, they have their allies. The Bloc members, the NDP and the Conservatives stood. They said “Let's not debate it. Let's just jam it down the minds of people. Lets forget about whether or not the people agree. It does not matter”.
I care profoundly about the country. I care profoundly about the equality of Canadians. For us to give approval by the actions of a whip telling his people how to vote and jamming the thing through, with all its implications, will have profound effects for many years to come. We will see our children and our grandchildren living with the consequences of this dastardly deed. This will go down in history as one of the dark points of the 36th parliament because of the fact that they will have put into the constitution rules that divide us based on race.
I would like to read another blue book policy which attracts me. The Reform Party's ultimate goal in aboriginal matters is that all aboriginal people be full and equal participants in Canadian citizenship, indistinguishable in law and treatment from other Canadians.
I believe that is a high goal based on a valid human principle. It is excessively superior to the lack of principles demonstrated in the Nisga'a agreement in which we have the country divided up based on bloodlines, based on race.
I also believe that we have been sitting on our butts far too long with respect to native affairs. I am saying this now collectively. I am blaming the governments of the last 130 years. There has been inaction and any action that has been taken has been wrong action.
The Indian Act is a bleak part of Canadian history. When the agreement says that we will move this group of native people out of the Indian Act, I have to say that I agree with that part of it, because the Indian Act has been used in order to keep native people in their place. That is very wrong.
I have only been in Canada for a scant 60 years. I was not here 132 years ago when some of this was done. I was not here 250 years ago when some of these fishing agreements were made. Yet I look back and say those who were here made an error.
As any person will say, it is the height of folly not to admit when one has made a mistake. It is a greater folly to say that what we have done in the last 130 years has not worked and if we do more of it now it will work. That does not make sense. We need to deal with this matter in a way which is rational, addresses the problem and does not continue to sweep under the rug the real issues. My closing statement is that the fundamental issue is the equality of all Canadians.