Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my hon. colleague for his speech. I have a great deal of respect for the work he does and I am also pleased that he represents the Mi'kmaq community.
I have a question for the member. After talking about Nelson Mandela, he mentioned that he wanted to be positive and light the candle for first nations. I would like to hear his thoughts on the scope of the debate we are having right now. This is an emergency debate on fishing rights, but in my humble opinion, it is about much more than that. Earlier I talked about the Indian Act and the systemic racism that is inherent in the colonial system. I would like to hear his thoughts on that.
The issue we are addressing here is perhaps a tiny part of what we should be working on, that is, all federal laws that oppress first nations to one degree or another. Of course I will leave it up to first nations to express this in their own words.