Mr. Speaker, I apologize if it was not clear. I will vote against this bill. I do not support this bill. I do not think this bill is an effective way of advancing reconciliation. The Universal Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples contains positive aspirations and values within it that Canada should support and move forward on, but the legal framework contains a lot of problems and ambiguity: problems that would negatively affect indigenous peoples. As Winston Churchill said, “It is not enough to do our best, we have to know what to do and then do our best.” In other words, the mechanism and details matter.
We can all have positive aspirations, but we have to get the mechanics right if we want to deliver on those aspirations. That has been the biggest problem with the government when it comes to indigenous peoples. There is a big emphasis on their aspirations, but the government has not been able to deliver on the details. Delivering on the details means sometimes saying that this piece of legislation does not work, and we need something better.