Mr. Chair, I will be sharing my time with my hon. colleague for Winnipeg Centre.
The discovery last week of 215 children buried on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School is a sad reminder of Canada's genocidal actions against indigenous peoples. First nations, survivors, elders, leaders, the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation and others are calling for action to confront this history and help bring about closure. Families and communities are discussing this important issue, and now the House is doing so as well.
I have asked the Prime Minister repeatedly if he will stop fighting indigenous children and residential school survivors in court. He refuses to say he will. He refuses to say that he will stop making indigenous families and residential school survivors suffer. That is not reconciliation. True reconciliation means taking real action to end the injustice against indigenous peoples.
We reeled in horror at the discovery of 215 indigenous children found buried at that former residential school. Canadians across the country were horrified by what had happened to these children. As a nation, we saw people around the country hold memorials to reflect on what this horror means.
What it means very clearly is that these residential schools were not schools. They were institutions designed to eradicate and eliminate indigenous people. They were institutions designed to perpetrate a genocide.
I spoke with Chief Rosanne Casimir, an indigenous leader representing the community at the heart of this, and she told me about the pain her community feels right now. This is not a surprise. There are many examples of indigenous children being killed and dying at residential schools, but the uncovering of this site opened up wounds and requires healing.
Chief Rosanne Casimir reminded me of the importance of the community, the need for the community to heal and the importance of the federal government supporting that healing.
I want to point out very clearly that, while we are reeling from this loss and this horrible discovery, we have to also acknowledge that injustice continues to happen. The Prime Minister and the Liberal government are, at this very moment, fighting indigenous kids in court despite multiple Canadian Human Rights Tribunal decisions. Despite multiple orders from the Human Rights Tribunal, the government is fighting these kids in court. The Liberal government is fighting survivors of residential schools in court right now.
The Liberal government is failing so badly in putting in place the missing and murdered indigenous women and girls inquiry's calls for justice that indigenous women's groups are saying they are going to have to come up with their own plan to implement them.
Today in this take-note debate, I want us to move beyond the nice words and symbolic gestures the Liberal government makes again and again. We need concrete action.
What does that look like? It stops the legal battles. It stops fighting indigenous kids in court. It stops fighting Human Rights Tribunal decisions. It stops fighting survivors of residential schools in court.
We are calling on the federal government to work with indigenous nations to put in place funding for further investigations, and we are calling on an acceleration of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's calls to action. We want real action. That is what justice demands.
It is not good enough to say that we are sharing condolences. We demand action to put right injustice and to fight for a future that is based on human rights, respect for treaty rights, respect for justice and respect for the inherent dignity of indigenous people.