Mr. Chair, of course our government's position on the matter in relation to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is quite principled. In particular, article 26 of the declaration calls for all traditional lands to be returned to indigenous peoples. In Canada, we have had over 200 years of negotiated settlements with indigenous people. This actually runs in direct contrast to all that we have settled throughout our history and we feel that this declaration would run against everything that Canada has negotiated.
In the House of Commons on May 29th, 2008. See this statement in context.