Debates of April 12th, 2016

Situation in Indigenous Communities

[Len Webber, Conservative, Calgary Confederation, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I absolutely agree with everything that the member said. I too represent an inner city riding, in Calgary, where we have a large population of aboriginal people who are struggling day to day. It is heartbreaking. I have served on the Calgary Homeless Foundation for a number of years, and I have met with many of these individuals. We have done what we have been able to do to help them.

We all need to come together as a government, all parties, to ensure that this cannot continue. We have to take this more seriously than ever.

[Julie Dabrusin, Liberal, Toronto—Danforth, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for sharing his thoughts and his personal experience with grief and loss. There is a tremendous amount to be learned from our own personal experiences that we bring with us to the House.

What I would like to ask my colleague is what he believes would be the best possible support response that we could provide to Attawapiskat and similar communities at this time.

[Len Webber, Conservative, Calgary Confederation, AB]

Mr. Speaker, in my time as a provincial aboriginal relations minister, I focused more on the long term, with regard to aboriginal education. I know that to build a foundation around education for a child is of utmost importance. It is what will enable them to continue to learn as they get older and enable them to thrive in society.

With regard to the short-term solution to deal with what is happening in Attawapiskat, we need to bring in counselling services immediately. There are so many things that we need to do. We need to assure these children that there is hope in this world for them and that we do care for them. We want them to thrive in this society, in this world.

I do not know what the solution is. I truly do not. We just all need to work together with the aboriginal leaders to come up with something of substance that encourages young people, and all of society, to have hope for the future.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I am thankful for the opportunity to speak to this critical issue.

All of us know in the House that there is an urgent need for action. There are many challenging parts to this issue. There are no easy answers.

I think it is important that we do not wrap this particular issue exclusively in just the broader question of the challenges facing aboriginal communities. There are many challenges facing first nations communities. However, we also need to have a specific strategy to address suicide, because suicide is a challenge like no other.

We have all been moved by the tragedy in Attawapiskat, and the broader context in terms of suicide within aboriginal communities is horrifying. Suicide rates in aboriginal communities have been shockingly and persistently high. Not only are the numbers high, but while the overall Canadian suicide rate has declined, these rates have continued to rise in aboriginal communities.

Existing numbers may in fact under-report the levels of suicide in aboriginal communities. In many cases, suicides may appear as accidental death, and aboriginal communities have significantly higher rates of accidental death as well as suicide.

I spent some time today reading a report prepared for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation called “Suicide Among Aboriginal People in Canada”. I would certainly recommend the reading of this report to all members in this place.

There are a few points in particular from this report that I would like to highlight, because I think they may help us chart a way forward.

First of all, the report highlights the significant need for more study, specifically about suicide within aboriginal communities. There is a need to dig deeper into the specific dynamics, problems, and potential solutions that apply here in Canada.

I know my Conservative colleagues recently proposed a study at the aboriginal affairs committee specifically on the staggering rate of suicides among Canada's indigenous people. Our colleagues in other parties disagreed and preferred instead a study focused on general health issues. It is not to suggest that is not important, but I think we need to recognize suicide as a specific and distinct kind of challenge.

It was interesting for me to read in this report that there is significant variation across different aboriginal communities. This is important. It gives us an opportunity to study communities where things are working and to try to facilitate connections between communities with significant challenges and communities that may already have some solutions. Let us explore the possibility of facilitating partnerships between communities and also studying the significant variation between communities.

The report highlights how suicide can spread in small communities with close interconnections. The report reads as follows:

In small Aboriginal communities where many people are related, and where many people face similar histories of personal and collective adversity, the impact of suicide may be especially widespread and severe.

Later on, the report tells us this:

Early interventions with families and communities to support the healthy development of infants and children may reduce the prevalence of personality disorders and other mental health problems, which are more difficult to address in adolescents or adults.

Therefore, we know the importance of that early intervention.

The report highlights strategies that make a difference: restricting access to the means of suicide, providing education on coping skills, training youth as peer councillors, training those who come into regular contact with youth, mobilizing the creation of community-based suicide programs, and ensuring that mass media portrays suicide and other community problems appropriately.

Through all of this, I think we all recognize that there is a role for government but that government policy is not the central factor. The report I referred to highlights that we need to explore and support local solutions to strengthen individuals, families, and whole communities. Certainly I would again underline the emphasis on the need for further study.

There is one final and perhaps somewhat distinct point that I want to make about these tragic suicides. Very soon in this place, we are going to be debating legislation on physician-assisted suicide. I know that we will all have an opportunity to debate this latter point, but I do want members to think about that debate in light of this one and of this situation. The young people who took their lives I am sure felt that they faced serious and irremediable suffering. Indeed, anyone who commits suicide likely feels themselves to be experiencing serious and irremediable suffering.

Most systems of morality or law rely on absolute moral or legal rules. When morality or law is seen as situational, it becomes more fluid, more subject to individual situational justification. That is why moral rules like “thou shalt not kill” are important. Any time modifications are introduced to previously understood absolute moral rules, they may induce a relaxation in the social taboo beyond the parameters of the proposed modification.

For example, Oregon legalized assisted suicide in 1997 and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report showed suicides within men and women ages 35 to 64 increased by 49% in Oregon between 1999 and 2010, compared to a 28% U.S. national increase overall. It seems to be that when clear immutable behavioural standards are removed, behaviour changes.

Certainly, whatever we do on that issue we particularly need to make sure that we are listening to the voices and concerns raised by indigenous Canadians.

I want to quote at some length from comments that Dr. Alika Lafontaine, the president of the Indigenous Physicians Association of Canada, made before the special joint committee. He said:

In reviewing these hearings, I feel obliged to identify the absence of the major national indigenous organizations. I believe there has not been meaningful consultations with indigenous peoples, although meaningful mainstream Canadian consultations have been carried out by many other organizations that have presented here. You are all aware of the widening health disparities among indigenous peoples and the rest of Canada. When considering the overrepresentation of indigenous peoples in nearly every category who may qualify and pursue medically assisted dying, it should be strongly considered that you may be ignoring the largest proportional demographic that is eligible to pursue this service. I hope the apparent absence of indigenous consultation is remedied prior to any final decisions regarding indigenous patients and medically assisted dying.

He went on to say:

My personal experience with indigenous patients and their concerns regarding medically assisted dying are very different from my experience with mainstream Canadian patients. One reason is that medically assisted dying has existed in our communities for more than a century.

When residential schools exposed children to nutritional deprivation and medical experimentation, that was medically assisted dying.

When child and family services apprehend indigenous children at an alarmingly high rate—if not the highest rate of all demographics—with medical decisions made by the crown, and an inconsistent quality of standards that contribute to children dying in care or going missing, that is medically assisted dying. When the trauma of residential schools is perpetuated intergenerationally and we do nothing to stem the tide of abuse, addiction, and suicide that overwhelms our indigenous communities through insufficient mental health intervention, except in crisis, that is medically assisted dying.

When indigenous peoples have programs designed without their input, then are chastised for poor engagement in mainstream health care, that is medically assisted dying.

When there is no monitoring, tracking, or enforcement of standard practice that every other Canadian can expect when receiving medical care, that is medically assisted dying. If an indigenous person dies and no one tracks it, does anyone care?

What we are pleading for in indigenous communities is not medically assisted dying. That already exists in more ways than can be counted. What we are pleading for is medically assisted life.

Those are the remarks of Dr. Lafontaine. I think we need to listen to them. We need to take his concerns seriously. Going forward, let us leverage the collegiality we have seen tonight to build a better country for everyone.

[Greg Fergus, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Innovation]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the hon. member and all hon. members for the debate tonight. Certainly, when I listen to this debate it is very easy to become overwhelmed by the challenges faced by our aboriginal youth, especially as symbolized by the crisis that we are facing in Attawapiskat.

However, my head, my heart, and my faith also convince me that the first nations indigenous communities and their youth, as challenging as the problems are, also have the resilience and the strength to deal with these problems if only we were to offer some form of co-operation with them.

Let me tell a story from my own riding of Hull—Aylmer, which is a place where a lot of first nations communities come. Parents come to study to improve themselves, to go to CEGEP or to go across the river to a college or a university, and oftentimes they bring their children. The children face a difficult transition of moving from school to school. Yet, let me mention one school in my riding, Pierre Elliott Trudeau Elementary School, where the kids got together and under the guidance of a first nations music producer, David Hodges, produced a fabulous video in which the elementary students themselves told their story. They wrote the song. They wrote the music. They produced the video. It really was a positive demonstration of what can happen when they come together. It was the first time that a lot of those students felt that they were paid attention to and they had that opportunity to express themselves.

There are many ways in which people in a community can take action themselves. I wonder if the hon. member would have a comment on that.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I think the point the member makes is right to suggest that really there is a lot of resilience and a lot of hope within aboriginal communities.

In my speech I talked about identifying aboriginal communities where things are going relatively better and looking at ways that we can help build those connections. Many of these solutions are not going to come from government. As the member alluded to, they are going to come from individual groups, communities, schools, and families. However, we can play a role as well in helping to facilitate those connections and those conversations.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I think all of us tonight are feeling very united in a commitment that is shared and non-partisan. I want to make this more as a comment than a question because I do not want to put my hon. colleague on the spot.

The systemic violence of the residential school system over 100 years is clearly part of the context in which these young people are struggling. I just wanted to have at least some opportunity tonight to reflect on the importance of the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. While we are talking about immediate steps to address a mental health crisis, a crisis of hopelessness in specific communities, we should not forget the searing violence that may have played, and I think likely played, a large role in making beautiful young people think of their future in muted greys, that they have lost the full spectrum of the rainbow of beauty that awaits them if they would just believe that they have a real future, being loved and embraced by all Canadians.

[Garnett Genuis, Conservative, Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan, AB]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the member for her work on this, and certainly for her passion as well.

Yes, the circumstances in residential schools, most would suggest, were a significant contributing factor to high levels of suicide in aboriginal communities. The report that I referred to earlier identified community challenges as well as individual factors that can lead to higher rates of suicide. I think we need to always be talking about both, about the individual factors that may predispose or create risk for an individual and also the factors that create risk in the community.

The apology that happened in this place was an important step, but of course, there is much more work that we can do. There may be disagreement about some of the specific details, but I think there is a consensus in this place about the need to move forward with reconciliation and with support for our aboriginal communities.

[Robert-Falcon Ouellette, Liberal, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with my hon. colleague from Newfoundland and Labrador.

I am proud to stand here on the unceded land of the Algonquin people, the meeting place of the Métis Nation, the united first nations, the Inuit people, and the home of all Canadians.

I have a message for the people of Attawapiskat, for the people of Cross Lake with whom I have met, for every indigenous person, whether they live in Quebec City, on a reserve or in a city, in Newfoundland, in Winnipeg, or in Regina. Wherever they are in Canada, each and every one of them matters. Every life matters.

An elder said to me, “We need to fight hard to keep the spirit of suicide out.”

The pain those people feel is real. It is a pain that I have felt myself. They may feel powerless. They may feel despair. They may feel hopelessness. However, there are cracks in the world, and that is where the light can come in. If they can hold on through that pain and muster their strength to make it through another day, that pain can fade, and they are never alone. There are people across Canada who care about what happens to them. This is a demonstration here tonight of the people who care about them. They matter. They are important.

The only thing harder than losing someone is losing someone before his or her time. The pain he or she is feeling is a part of grieving. It is part of honouring a lost life. Grief is hard, but it is not evil. It is our spirit that is in pain because we have been split away from the one we loved. However, the loss of hope that we feel is something greater, more profound, and it is real.

The reality of the lives of the people in Cross Lake and Attawapiskat needs to be heard across the country and around the world. Life in first nation communities is hard, and it is harder than it needs to be. There are too many communities like Cross Lake and Attawapiskat, across Manitoba and across the country where too many people, young and old, are living without hope. There are many indigenous people living off reserve who struggle with poverty and racism in our great cities. We, as their brothers and sisters, as their fellow citizens, as their fellow human beings, have let them down.

There is a prophecy that was told to me by an elder, Winston Wuttunee, who comes from the west. The prophecy as told is that after contact with Europeans, the indigenous people will suffer greatly. However, upon the shoulders of the seventh generation will fall the task of lifting up the people. Starting in greater numbers, they will start to take pride in themselves, in their culture, in their religion, and in their families. They will realize that their culture and their ancestors are strong, and that their ancestors are standing behind them willing them on to success.

There is a second part to this prophecy, which is that the seventh generation will not do this by themselves. Rather, hand-in-hand with newcomers they will bring change to their common society, because we all know it has to change and the change must be deep and structural. We must embrace deep change for our communities. I believe that change is possible.

Despair can give way to hope, and fear can give way to joy, but it will take an awful lot of work. It will take work from every level of government, from the esteemed members of this chamber to every chief and band council across the country, to provide the deep change that is needed. It will also require the work of corporations and our fellow citizens. It will take the federal governments, provinces, cities, and first nations, the Métis nation and the Inuit people, because too often when we hear about a tragedy or a tragedy-on-tragedy in first nations communities, our very first thought is to separate ourselves from the problem and pronounce our own innocence. Too often we, as Canadians, say, “What are they doing? What is their leadership doing to solve their problems?” We do not ask what we are doing. We do not ask what our leadership is doing to solve our own collective problems. These are our collective problems.

Since before the first European set foot on Turtle Island, the territory we now call Canada has always been home to not one but many people. Today, Canada is home to many people from many nations, and first nations and all indigenous peoples are Canadians. We are still many people united as one. It starts with hope. Everything begins with hope. Making hope a reality takes work, effort, and resources.

I will urge them to do something more. Every single one of them is stronger than they know. Every single one of them is better than they know. When times are at their hardest, I urge them to use the spark of sacred energy within them to hold on to hope, to look to the light, to look within them to keep moving forward, even when hope seems lost. If they hold some guilt or shame within them or think of themselves as a bad person, they should know this: that they can change, they can grow, they can be forgiven, and they can forgive themselves. They are not born good, nor are they born bad. We become good by doing good deeds. We become generous by doing generous acts. We can inspire others to goodness so they can join with us. If they wake up in despair, they can say, “Today is a good day because I am alive and I matter.” The road ahead may not be easy.

Basil Johnston, an Anishinabe elder, wrote that each and every one of us has a life path, a potential, a destiny. We start with many possible paths, but we must choose one path. For some in our society, that path is steep and rocky. The young start climbing the hill. Some walk, some run, some crawl, and some stumble. Those who arrive at the top of the path and see the path continues, they move along that path getting older. Some youth will pick a different path, a path which will not lead to their full potential. They arrive at the top of a rocky hill. They look over to the other side and the road continues. Some will give up and not realize their full potential, but others will continue and conquer that mountain and see that promised land that we heard about over 50 years ago.

The elders are victors for they have walked many winding paths, yet they still stand at the top of the mountain and can look back and see the young, the youth, and the adults in the distance behind them and still look forward into the sun and see the grandfathers in the distance.

However, each of them have a road and a path they can follow out of the darkness and into the light.

I will carry them in my heart on my travels and I will remember them and think of them, and I will invite them to work with me, for themselves and for all of us to see the deep change we need.

However, we know that hope is not enough and words are fleeting, especially off in the highest chambers of our land.

Hope is a good breakfast, but a poor supper.

In the midst of darkness, we need to redouble our efforts and offer not just words but action. We must offer not just hope but opportunity.

We can build homes for the homeless. We can provide jobs for the jobless. We can provide better health care and education. It is our duty and our plan to do so, but we must do more.

We have an opportunity to move forward, not simply in reconciliation, as survivors waiting passively for the house of Canada to come to the rescue, but we must move forward in celebration of indigenous peoples as a founding people of this land in recognizing the covenant that we have together.

There are four directions in my indigenous tradition. There are four seasons in this land. There are four founding peoples. They are the indigenous peoples, the English, the French, and the newcomers who have come from around the world who now call this place, Canada, home. That is the true nature of our nation.

We did not make this broken world that we inherited, but we do not have to leave it to our children.

It is about recognizing dignity and freedom and care for all Canadians, about recognizing that each and every one of us is a human being, worthy of respect, that each and every one of us matters.

Tapwe akwa khitwam.

[Alistair MacGregor, NDP, Cowichan—Malahat—Langford, BC]

Mr. Speaker, earlier my colleague from Timmins—James Bay told the House that the greatest resource in Canada is not oil. It is not our metals, our forestry, our fish, or our agriculture. It is our children, and our children's greatest resource is hope. It is that wholehearted optimism about positive outcomes, that special way that children seem to approach each day as they wake up. I have seen it in my own twin daughters every day, and it is a remarkable thing to behold.

Children are the future of every community across this vast land we call Canada, and that is why it is so devastating when children lose that hope.

In 2012, Cowichan Tribes Chief Harvey Alphonse, in response to 52 suicide alerts in his community, said, “My personal experience is that a couple of individuals that have approached me have considered taking their life.... They've given up because they feel there isn't any hope for them.”

The gap still exists in first nations children funding despite the promises in the budget, so I ask the hon. member if he will stand and say that his government is going to commit to developing that greatest of all resources, the hope of our children, so that all children will have that full opportunity.

[Robert-Falcon Ouellette, Liberal, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Mr. Speaker, I do agree that our children are the future. We are imperfect as adults. We have done things imperfectly, but our children can have the perfection that we can never have.

There is a need for deep and profound change within our Canadian society. We need to ensure that we see the deep change, that we think about the long term, the structural change that needs to occur in governance structure. We need to think about empowering people, ensuring that first nations are able to come together like the James Bay Cree and have the opportunity to create a society that fulfills their long-term potential.

When I think of successful first nations, I think of the James Bay Cree. This first nation has been able to govern itself since 1975 and be autonomous to a large extent. It still has issues with some relations with other governments, but at the same time it has always been able to build capacity and build a future.

The differences are stark between Attawapiskat and its brothers just on the other side of the Quebec border. That is telling about the different types of structures: one exists under the Indian Act, and the other exists in self-determination under its own governance structure as proud indigenous people.

[Nick Whalen, Liberal, St. John's East, NL]

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the member for Winnipeg Centre for his inspiring words earlier, not only to the people in the House but to anyone who might be listening at home on CPAC.

Our party campaigned and won on a promise to implement the recommendations in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report. The path forward under that is very long and will not necessarily provide solutions immediately, so in addition to those recommendations, I ask the member for his personal opinion on things we might be able to do to allow us to see more immediate results. I think that would be helpful to the House.

[Robert-Falcon Ouellette, Liberal, Winnipeg Centre, MB]

Mr. Speaker, we do not have to do one specific thing. We could be doing many things on all sorts of fronts.

First off, we need to ensure that indigenous peoples have the monetary resources to raise their children properly. No child should live in poverty. I hope some of our new government programming will go a long way toward providing that in the form of a type of guaranteed income. Though not enough, it would certainly be a very good start.

I also hope that we can perhaps look at some of the treaty territories, such as Manitoba first nations. Perhaps we can look at Treaty 4 territory. Perhaps this area is now ready for self-determination. Perhaps it is ready to look after itself. With 34 first nations, perhaps it is ready to work together to build communities among itself and use them as an example of what we can build off from the James Bay Cree. Perhaps we could then move into Treaty 4 territory and then perhaps Treaty 6 and look at building long-term relationships, an actual nation-to-nation relationship, and look at building long-term capacity. An individual community of 500 might not be strong enough to develop the necessary long-term capabilities to provide for themselves, but if first nations work together, perhaps they will be able to in the very long term.

[Yvonne Jones, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs]

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank all colleagues in the House of Commons this evening for their contribution to this important discussion we are having around youth suicide in indigenous communities. I think the discussion tonight actually marks a full understanding of the action that is needed toward strengthening, supporting, and ensuring survival and success of our indigenous youth, our indigenous communities, and families.

The member for Timmins—James Bay came to the House of Commons today asking for the help of Canada and Parliament to respond to the unfortunate acts of suicide in his riding in the community of Attawapiskat. He also knows that there are many other communities that share these sad circumstances and events across our country's indigenous community.

In my own riding, I have full communities today that are filled with grief on a monthly basis as they are forced to say goodbye to another hopeful young person who decided to take his or her own life.

It is even those young people who have lived a full life in indigenous communities, some who became strong leaders. I remember a young girl whom I met in one of the communities in my riding. Her name was Duru. Everyone knew her as Duru. She was a fantastic young woman in high school, leading as a great example for young Inuk women and young Inuks in the community. She was a strong leader. She led the celebrations of life in the loss of many of her peers. She led the youth healing circles. She led the youth onto the land. She worked with the elders. A few short weeks ago, she took her own life because the grief and trauma of despair that surrounded her in trying to raise up the young people in her community was too much.

Even our healthiest young indigenous people, who are out there trying to make a difference, do not often see the path forward. Sometimes we have to stop and reflect on the impact it is having on all people who try to lead in circumstances like this.

Tonight, as we discuss this important issue in Parliament—and it is getting close to midnight—I want us to remember that there are children in communities who are not able to close their eyes this evening because of fear and trauma, because of pain, because of the feeling of hopelessness they experience. There are many young indigenous people today who are unable to close their eyes because of the addictions they suffer from. There are many of them still walking the streets in our villages. They are probably not even aware of what they are looking for. However, the feeling of restlessness, of hopelessness, is the one thing they cannot fix.

There are children this evening without a safe house, without a comfortable bed, not even looking forward to a better day to wake up to tomorrow. That is why we are here having this discussion. Suicide in indigenous youth in our community is in a state of turmoil.

It may be one community that brings a motion to Parliament, but it is shared by so many more, so many that we never hear about in the news. So many young people take their lives in indigenous communities everyday and never make it to a public announcement. What does that say about us as a society when we become accepting to a certain degree?

I am proud to stand here tonight among people who are not prepared to accept this, and I pray there will be a way forward. I know there is a way forward. What we have just recently seen in our country, the real change in attitude toward indigenous communities and indigenous people, the real change of reaching out and lifting them up because we know they have been left behind, is going to be the path forward. Simply recognizing that there is a responsibility by the people of our country to lift up indigenous people, the first people who came here, in itself will be change.

Today, as I sat in the Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development, I listened to the president of the National Women's Association of Canada. She spoke very eloquently, very passionately and emotionally about the work she had been doing in our country to help women, families, and children. She talked about the progress they had made, but then slipped back. She talked about funding cuts for critical programs that were making a difference in communities that now were lost.

Why does this happen? When we find models that work and people who are willing to give every ounce of energy they have to make the change, why do we walk away? I do not want to see those things ever happen again. Every time we turn our backs on helping one person, that is one person who is falling through the cracks. For every one, there is another.

When I listened to the president of NWAC today, I was reminded of the good people in our country, those who give their time and energy, their commitment, their heart, and their patience to make this change. That is why is up to us to work with them.

The budget was just presented. Historically, we will invest $8.4 billion over the next five years to improve the socio-economic conditions of indigenous people and their communities. It deals with clean water, early education, support for housing and addressing poverty, shelters, counselling, support for services, and health care. All of these things are included. Why are they included? Because it is a recognition that we have to start with the basics. The basic foundation has to change.

We have to support indigenous communities and indigenous people. We also have to recognize that they are not all the same. There is not a one size that fits all. For the first time in our country, we have a budget that recognizes that the needs of Inuit are different from first nations and Métis, and we are able to invest in those directions.

I heard people this evening say that it was not about investing money. When children in first nations schools are getting far less education, then it is about money. When children in first nations communities do not have proper health services and counselling, then it is about investment and money. Do not confuse the fact that there is no investment required, because Liberals recognize that. Even in the first budget we have made moves to do that, and we will continue to do it.

A number of people this evening talked about the fact that it is 2016. Well, it is 2016, and I am proud that we have a Prime Minister and a government in this country that is recognizing the real need for reconciliation and that it requires investment in first nations.

I am happy that my colleague opposite is bringing these issues to the House of Commons. That is where they need to be. This is the house of people. This is where ideas and solutions should get generated. This is where we should be responding to people, and I am proud to stand this evening and say that I will do my part to ensure that we help lift up the indigenous communities in this country and lift up our young aboriginal people who are bright and brilliant and who need us right now.

I look forward to working with the minister, our government, and all my colleagues to make that happen.

[Cathy McLeod, Conservative, Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I thank the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs for her very powerful speech, one of many we have heard tonight. I do acknowledge that the government has put significant resources into a long-term plan.

I want to focus my comments on the short term, so it is a two-part question.

We have heard about the needs of Attawapiskat, and we heard about La Loche. One of the things that concerned me was what I heard from the member of Parliament who represents La Loche, that services were flown in, but within two months those services were no longer there, and as we can imagine, the trauma impacting that community was significant.

In the short term, given all the speeches tonight, given the fact that she has a very important and critical role, what will my colleague be recommending to the minister and cabinet in terms of what we should do immediately, the next steps?

[Yvonne Jones, Liberal, Labrador, NL]

Mr. Speaker, immediate action has already been taken. No one has been sitting around waiting for a debate or a discussion. This is about a longer term fix and being committed.

In the short term, Health Canada, along with INAC, has despatched numbers of health care workers, mental health workers, and all the services that have been required to respond to the critical needs existing in the community immediately. Will more be necessary? Absolutely it will.

Funding has been available for the first nations to secure the programs and services that we think will help in the short term. There have been a number of recommendations made to government of ways in which we should be approaching this and working with the communities. We will continue to take their advice. We will continue to partner with them, and we are there every step of the way. Let there be no doubt about that.

[Romeo Saganash, NDP, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Mr. Speaker, the speech of the parliamentary secretary was very inspiring indeed.

She mentioned in her speech something very fundamental that I want to raise with her. She said that the basic foundations of this country need to change. I happen to agree with that.

In a speech before the Assembly of First Nations, Special Chiefs Assembly, the Prime Minister made a commitment. He said, “Finally, we will conduct a full review of the legislation unilaterally imposed on indigenous peoples by earlier governments”.

If there is one piece of legislation in this country that is pernicious, insidious, and archaic, it is the Indian Act.

Will the parliamentary secretary tell the Prime Minister to uphold that commitment to change the Indian Act?

[Yvonne Jones, Liberal, Labrador, NL]

Mr. Speaker, I have great respect for my colleague who has been a tremendous advocate on all issues involving indigenous people in this country.

We also understand the need for changes to the Indian Act. The Prime Minister has made that commitment. We are planning to move forward with some review in terms of the Indian Act. How that review will look is still being undertaken at this stage.

We have heard this recommendation from every indigenous group we have met with. All I can say to the member right now is that we stand by that commitment. We know it is important to make that change and adjustment.

[Romeo Saganash, NDP, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I want to indicate that I will be sharing my time with the hon. member for Churchill—Keewatinook Aski.

First of all in this debate, we need to try to understand where we come from as a country. We need to reflect on where this country comes from and on the basis it was founded almost 150 years ago.

When I came out of a residential school, I set out on a mission to bring us back together. I set out on a mission to reconcile with the people who put me away for 10 years. They had incarcerated me culturally, linguistically, and politically. When I came out of there, I wanted to make sure that this would not happen to any indigenous children in this country anymore.

The historical and contemporary situation in Canada includes many long-standing injustices. In a broad context, members may remember that the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples recounts that “No segment of our research aroused more outrage and shame than the story of residential schools”.

The royal commission went on to describe the incredible damage done to indigenous peoples in this country. There was a loss of life, denigration of culture, destruction of self-respect, destruction of self-esteem, rupture of families, and the impact of these traumas on succeeding generations.

The assimilation policies of the Canadian government involved the forced transfer of large populations of young aboriginal Canadians. Such government acts also had the aim and effect of depriving aboriginal peoples of their integrity as distinct peoples and of their cultural values and identities.

I recall in 2005, the former federal justice minister Irwin Cotler said that the decision to house young Canadians in residential schools was the single most harmful, disgraceful, and racist act in our history.

Therefore, it is useful to consider the broader context of how we came to what we are discussing today and the policies relating to aboriginal peoples. For instance, from 1927 to 1951, it was an offence under the Indian Act for Indians to raise funds or retain a lawyer for purposes of their land claims. That is shameful. This discriminatory policy contributed to the further dispossession of aboriginal peoples' lands and resources, and today, as we see, their dependency.

Indigenous peoples had their integrity, security, and well-being undermined. Indigenous peoples in Canada were persecuted on the basis of their culture.

As members probably know, and as my colleague from Winnipeg Centre pointed out, I have the good fortune of being from the James Bay area in Quebec, where we signed Canada's first modern treaty in 1975. When people talk about indigenous issues here in the House, they often say that these issues are so complicated that they are almost afraid to go anywhere near them. I have been hearing these kinds of comments for nearly five years now.

I know, however, that when the will to address these issues is there, we are capable of great political and legal imagination. I have no doubt about that. I have seen it and experienced it first hand in my part of northern Quebec.

I have participated in this debate from the very beginning, and I have listened to all the speeches. It is important to remember, in looking for a solution, there is no lack of precedents in our history. We need only think of the James Bay Cree, in northern Quebec, as members opposite pointed out. There are solutions. However, there must be respect for indigenous peoples, and we must recognize their most fundamental rights. That is what is missing most of the time.

I was also involved in the process that led to the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by the United Nations General Assembly. This process lasted 23 years and I was involved from start to finish. This document contains provisions that inform the issues we have been discussing for several hours.

Article 21.1 pertains to health services. Article 21.2 is another example. Article 24.2 concerns the possibility of indigenous peoples controlling the programs that we are discussing here today. Article 43 is key. It states that the rights recognized in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples constitute the minimum standards for the survival, dignity, and well-being of the indigenous peoples of the country. That must be the basis for our work.

The Prime Minister made a commitment to work with indigenous people to implement the principles and goals of the declaration as well as to adopt it. I asked the question twice this evening. People talk about implementing the principles and goals of the declaration, but the members on the other side of the House never once said anything about passing legislation to adopt it. I find that unfortunate, but the private member's bill I plan to introduce will fix that. I hope to have the support of the members opposite when I introduce it.

I want to assure the House once again of my full co-operation in this process. I have had many years of experience, 35 years, in dealing with these issues, and I am prepared to contribute to this process.

I want to quote the highest court in 2012 in the case of Ipeelee. The court said:

...courts must take judicial notice of such matters as the history of colonialism, displacement, and residential schools and how that history continues to translate into lower educational attainment, lower incomes, higher unemployment, higher rates of substance abuse and suicide...

Genuine reconciliation cannot be successful as long as colonialism is perpetuated. I said over the weekend that true reconciliation is not possible in the absence of justice. We need to remember that.

Finally, I spoke briefly about my mission when I came out of residential school. We know that South Africa also had its own process of truth and reconciliation. I will quote Nelson Mandela on how he described his own transformation during 27 years in prison:

It was during those long and lonely years that my hunger for the freedom of my own people became a hunger for the freedom of all people, white and black. I knew as well as I knew anything that the oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed...[for all have been] robbed of their humanity.

When I walked out of prison, that was my mission, to liberate the oppressed and the oppressor both.

That is our mission today. That is our mission for the next couple of years. Let us hope that we walk on that same path.

[Kyle Peterson, Liberal, Newmarket—Aurora, ON]

Mr. Speaker, I want to give my hon. colleague the opportunity to elaborate on how his private member's bill can be part of the solution to this grave problem that our nation faces. If he would like to elaborate on that, we would be happy to hear that elaboration.

[Romeo Saganash, NDP, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Mr. Speaker, there is a lot of talk about reconciliation nation-to-nation since the government arrived on October 19, so it is important to elaborate on that.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission adopted a very important report. In that report are 94 calls to action. Most governments in the country, provincial, territories, and the federal government, have committed to implementing those 94 calls to action. However, the most important call to action is 43, which deals with the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The commission makes the distinction clearly between adopting and implementing. The commission calls for the full adoption, the full implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

I argue that the UN declaration already applies in the country. Not too many years ago, Supreme Court Chief Justice Dickson mentioned that international instruments like declarations were persuasive in relevant sources to interpret domestic law in the country. Therefore, the declaration already applies. My private member's bill proposes to translate that legislatively through the House.

[Sheila Malcolmson, NDP, Nanaimo—Ladysmith, BC]

Mr. Speaker, I am grateful for the dialogue in the House tonight and for all the people watching at home, especially to the front-line workers who are supporting Attawapiskat and other communities in great peril. They are doing hard work.

I would like to urge my fellow colleagues to give as much hope as we can to the people supporting us and the people supporting these communities. We will do our full work and use the full extent of the powers that we have in the House.

Things that come to mind are upholding our international human rights obligations, as my colleague has so beautifully put it; funding first nation children, as is our great responsibility and absolutely their right; reconciling with residential schools survivors, not fighting them in court; stopping litigating against first nations that argue quite rightly rights and titles. We have to stop interfering. As legislators, we have to start working together.

I urge all members of the House to do everything we can to do the work that the people in our home communities elected us to do, and that is to make change on the ground for people every day. I urge my colleagues to stand with me in that important task.

[Romeo Saganash, NDP, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Mr. Speaker, I do not think there was a question in that comment.

However, I will take this opportunity to thank my colleague from Timmins—James Bay for his initiative in bringing the debate to this august chamber. I think discussing this issue thoroughly for the first time was important. It was unprecedented.

I would especially like to thank the members who stayed here for much of the evening to listen to the other speeches. Once again, I thank the House for allowing me to speak to this subject.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Speaker, it is inadequate to thank my colleague for a truly deeply moving and important speech in this place. When will the private member's bill that the hon. member is putting forward come up for a vote? How can we help?

[Romeo Saganash, NDP, Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou, QC]

Mr. Speaker, seeing the openness and collaborative spirit that the current government showed when it got elected, I proposed to the minister that somebody from the other side co-sponsor my private member's bill. She has not come back to me on it, but nevertheless the private member's bill is ready and it is going to be introduced next week.

Given that the current government supported the bill that I had in the 41st Parliament, I am hoping that the Liberals will do the same with this private member's bill because it is the framework for reconciliation. As the Truth and Reconciliation Commission indicated, it is the framework of reconciliation.

However, we cannot say that we will implement the entire calls to action except that we have a slight problem with number 43. That is not how it works.