Mr. Speaker, we should never be at the point of having to wonder why people are being murdered. Many of these issues can be prevented. The issue of child welfare is fundamental. The government treats Cindy Blackstock as enemy number one. Why? Because she wants to end the systemic discrimination against children.
The government has legal obligations in each province to meet the provincial standards for child welfare and it refuses to meet them. It tells communities that children do not deserve and have no right to suicide counselling when hundreds and hundreds of young people have died. We know where that blood is. The responsibility for that is systemic. It stems from government policy.
We should provide that support and close the funding gap, rather than having the Indian affairs minister running around going on about his rogue chiefs. If he sat down and recognized that he has a legal, moral, and ethical responsibility to the children under his watch to have the same standards that exist in the provincial systems, our children would be growing up to be proud and moving forward, rather than quitting school in grades five and six because they have lost hope, which we have seen this on so many reserves.
These are fundamental systemic things that could happen now, not just to end the deaths but to create the potential in our country from the incredible untapped resources, the beautiful people who are being denied this through systemic discrimination.