Madam Speaker, very clearly that is the case. It is important when we are discussing land claims settlements that we recognize that. European and American settlers who came to what is now Canada, and my ancestors fall into the latter category having come from Virginia during the war of independence, did not treat our native peoples well. They were pushed off the land or into poor patches of land. Now it is time to redress those historic endemic problems and I think we are trying to do that the very best way we can.
I agree with my colleague from Beauséjour—Petitcodiac that this is something this parliament and indeed provincial and territorial legislatures will have to deal with, with dispatch and with a great deal of sensitivity today and tomorrow.