Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague for his speech, which had a strong focus on respect for the law. I have two comments about that.
First, it should be noted that, in the history of Canadian colonialism, the law often gave authority to steal land from indigenous peoples, put indigenous peoples on reserves and take indigenous children away from their families and send them to residential schools. The law also used to prohibit indigenous peoples from having lawyers. We therefore have to be careful when invoking the law, because its past has not always been positive.
Second, with regard to the current situation and respecting the law, does my colleague recognize the Supreme Court's 1997 ruling in Delgamuukw, which gives hereditary chiefs legal responsibility for protecting their lands?