Mr. Speaker, I do not believe the member was listening. I think he was readying himself for a response unfortunately,
What I have tried to make clear to him is that the flaws, which are so numerous in this bill, are flaws largely of ignorance on the part of the government. For example, we have the promise to spend more money on aboriginal housing which no one will own. We have the lack of willingness on the part of the government to address the absence of matrimonial property rights. Every other Canadian enjoys the property rights that we have all taken for granted in our lives, except aboriginal Canadians.
The member refers to my comments as bitter. I am bitter on behalf of my aboriginal constituents who feel they deserve the same rights as he enjoys and takes for granted.
Yes, I want to very vocally and very enthusiastically support the position of our party that matrimonial property rights should be brought to bear on reserve. Why does that matter? It matters immensely because if the government proceeds, as it proposes, to build more houses and housing stock and so on in the absence of those rights, then women and men will occupy them as houses but they will not own them as homes.
The fact is that if they happen to go through a marital breakup, what normally happens, unfortunately, in a patriarchal society, which is what most of the reserves are today, is that the woman loses everything. She loses her home. She may lose her family. She loses her possessions.
If the member does not think these are serious issues then he should stand up and tell me why he does not think that. If he thinks they are serious he should stand in this place and join with us and oppose this silly piece of legislation.