Madam Speaker, where I live, the government has spent over $21 million on lawyers alone fighting the Nuu-chah-nulth over their right to catch and sell fish.
Is this what caring and trying looks like? This is what colonizers, and power and suppression look like. This is what a violation of international human rights looks like. The Supreme Court judge in the Nuu-chah-nulth case, for example, scolded the Department of Fisheries and Oceans for knowingly sending its negotiators to the table empty handed, disgusted with the attitude of the government.
The systemic racism is so deep that we hear it right now in the House of Commons. Another example is what we are hearing from the member: He is caring and trying, and this is the most important relationship, but we will see them in court. That is what we keep hearing from the government.
We need better. The Mi'kmaq fishers deserve their right to a moderate living. The Nuu-chah-nulth deserve their right to earn a living, and they deserve to be safe. They deserve to have their human rights protected and respected. That is what the government has a duty to do.