Debates of June 1st, 2021

Residential Schools

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations]

Mr. Chair, I am addressing the House from my home in Toronto, on the traditional territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. I would like to pay tribute to the indigenous peoples who paddled these waters and whose moccasins walked this land.

First and foremost, I want to say that we are heartbroken for the families and communities affected by the tragic news of last week's discovery of human remains buried on the site of a former residential school in Kamloops.

We are all profoundly shaken by this horrifying discovery, and our thoughts are with the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation people as they mourn and come together to heal and support one another. After decades of work because of a knowing, the Tk'emlúps First Nation has found its missing children.

We will be there to support Tk'emlúps and all communities across Canada affected by missing children, the legacy of residential schools and the intergenerational trauma it inflicted. We are also committed to supporting survivors, their families and communities across Canada to locate, and memorialize through ceremony, the children who died or went missing while attending residential schools.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established to find the truth and the painful and lasting impacts of residential schools. In memory of all the children who went missing while attending residential schools, and in support of their grieving families and communities, our government has been working with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation to develop and maintain the national residential school student death register and to establish and maintain an online registry of residential school cemeteries, in response to calls to action 72 and 73. Also, through budget 2019, we committed $33.8 million over three years to support calls to action 74 to 76.

Over the summer and fall of 2020, we hosted a series of 16 virtual engagement sessions, with over 140 participants, which provided a further opportunity for dialogue with a variety of indigenous organizations across the country, such as survivors groups, advocacy organizations, healing and cultural centres, churches and communities, archives and research institutions, provincial and territorial heritage practitioners, knowledge keepers and health support workers. They have been very clear. They want the work to be indigenous-led, community-based, survivor-centric and culturally sensitive. They want support for their research and access to archeological expertise. We learned more about their wishes for appropriate commemoration ceremonies and markers, and reburial in home communities where requested.

I thank all members of the House for the passage of Bill C-5 last Friday, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. This will unlock $13.8 million in budget 2021 to support more commemoration and the ability to educate all Canadians on the painful legacy of residential schools.

Last Thursday night I was inspired by the resilience of the leadership in B.C. Charlene Belleau, the chair of the First Nations Health Council, said this would be an opportunity for healing and coming together. Kúkpi7 Casimir told me that she was making sure the community was supported and was bringing together the former Kúkpi7s to organize the ceremonies that the communities will need to unlock the healing.

Communities know what they need. We will be there to support their way forward.

I thank the Prime Minister for his heartfelt words when he said that saying sorry is not enough. He is committed to standing with communities as we begin to right these wrongs.

As the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, I want to give my profound apologies to the families and survivors. I promise that we will work together with them to find these lost children.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

Mr. Chair, I certainly appreciate the minister and her words today.

I would like to raise the experience and some of the words from Upper Nicola Band's Chief Harvey McLeod, whom I have tremendous respect for and who went to the school in question. He has said:

I went back to the two years that I attended. I know that there were incidents happening there because I went through a lot of experiences myself. I know people that just disappeared, and we assumed that they ran away and got away and are at home somewhere, but never did see them again.

We as communities and leadership will find the best way of doing this and taking care of our people. We want to all be on the same page when it comes to having the ceremony to bring our people home.

Would the minister please respond to some of the words from Upper Nicola Band's Chief Harvey McLeod?

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, Toronto—St. Paul's, ON]

Mr. Chair, it is an honour for me to respond to that question. Chief Harvey McLeod has taught me a great deal, and I remember conversations with his heartfelt descriptions of the pain that so many in his community endured.

He is absolutely right. The communities know what needs to be done, and our job is to support communities in the way they choose to go forward. It is a partnership, but they know what is needed and we will be there for them.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Mr. Chair, meegwetch.

In this debate on residential schools, I would like to say that when my sister was at CEGEP, she made a documentary on a residential school that happened to be located on our Anishinabe territory in Abitibi-Témiscamingue.

Richard Kistabish, my friend Ejinagosi, who was recently appointed a member of the Global Task Force for Making a Decade of Action for Indigenous Languages, said at the time that indigenous people “feel like apples”, meaning that they are red on the outside, but people want them to be white on the inside. These residential schools were designed to assimilate indigenous children, to kill the Indian in the child. Unfortunately, we can see that they also killed them for real.

The minister gave a forward-looking speech, for which I salute her. What measures can she take to commit to sustaining indigenous languages? That may be one way to honour the victims, by making sure indigenous languages are preserved throughout history. What will she commit to doing in that regard?

Meegwetch.

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, Toronto—St. Paul's, ON]

Mr. Chair, I thank the hon. member for his question.

Indigenous languages have almost disappeared because of assimilation policies, as the Prime Minister said. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission's calls to action are very important to us, especially for protecting indigenous languages.

That is why our government passed Bill C-91, an act respecting indigenous languages, in order to promote and protect indigenous languages. This is very important for all indigenous and first nations languages, including Inuktitut and Michif. This issue is very important to our government, and I thank everyone for their support.

Meegwetch.

[Elizabeth May, Green, Saanich—Gulf Islands, BC]

Mr. Chair, this is a time that is very difficult, for Canadians to face the truth. It is the settler-culture Canadians who have to face the truths that indigenous-culture Canadians have known for a long time.

I find it very sobering and distressing to realize that in 2009 there was a request from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for $1.5 million to begin the project to find the burial sites of the missing children ripped from their families and never, ever allowed to go home because they had died. We know that it was not this minister's government that turned down that request for $1.5 million, but why have we delayed so long?

What can the minister tell us about why we delayed so long to provide the funds? Kukpi7 Rosanne Casimir had to raise the money within that community to start to find the burial mass grave next to the Kamloops former residential school.

[Carolyn Bennett, Liberal, Toronto—St. Paul's, ON]

Mr. Chair, I thank the member for the question, and I too remember when there were many things the Truth and Reconciliation Commission had asked the previous government for that were declined or that actually ended up in court.

As the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation was set up, we immediately invested $10 million for that to continue in 2016. That relationship has been very important. They have been directing and supporting the research, the archives and the accessibility for families and communities to actually learn the truth that they had found over those very difficult six years.

There is no question that the missing children project and the working group during the commission did a phenomenal job, which resulted in calls to action 71 to 76. Call to action 71 was about the coroners with the provinces and territories. We are doing calls to action 72 and 73 with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation and we have engaged—

[The Chair, Conservative, Bruce Stanton]

We will have to leave it there. We are out of time, slightly over.

Resuming debate, the hon. Leader of the Opposition.

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Chair, the residential school system is a dark and painful part of the Canadian story. Tragically, new chapters are still being added to this sad history.

Just days ago, the discovery of a mass grave in Kamloops, containing the remains of 215 schoolchildren, was a heartbreaking reminder of the pain indigenous children, their families and their communities were subjected to through residential schools.

This weekend, my nine-year-old son, Jack, asked me why the flags were at half-mast in Ottawa. I had the difficult task of explaining to my son the terrible news of the graves of children found at the site of a residential school. “Kids are not supposed to die at school, Dad,” he told me. Sometimes the moral clarity of a child reminds us of our responsibilities as parliamentarians.

As a father, I am devastated to think that 215 children were buried at their school and lost for decades. As a member of Parliament and leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, I think this tragic discovery is shocking, and we have a duty to heal the wounds from this chapter of our history.

Yesterday, I wrote the Prime Minister to ask him to take immediate action to address this unspeakable discovery and support the indigenous communities and our country, which is in mourning. I will repeat my request for immediate action here in the House and pledge our full support as an opposition to act swiftly.

First, we have asked the Prime Minister to accelerate the completion of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's calls to action 71 to 76, dealing with missing children, burial sites, identification, commemoration, and to work, step by step, side by side, with families and indigenous communities in this important part of reconciliation. These calls to action should be prioritized immediately.

In addition, in the spirit of reconciliation, we are calling on the Parliament of Canada to pass Bill C-8 to recognize the aboriginal and treaty rights of first nations, Inuit and Métis people. This legislation will incorporate references to the aboriginal and treaty rights of first nations, Inuit and Métis people into the oath of citizenship. Together, we are participating in the reconciliation process.

Responsible citizenship in this great country of Canada requires us to commit to the ideals of our country: peace, order and good government, equality and opportunity for all. At many points in our history, we have fallen short of these ideals and these values we cherish. This is particularly the case in our collective failures with respect to indigenous Canadians.

Healing is the path forward. Healing is a powerful thing.

Roseann Kiyawasew is 93 years old today, but as a child, she and two siblings attended a residential school in Sturgeon Lake in northern Alberta. It was there that her little brother, Johnny, just 11 at the time, developed what was likely pneumonia. His condition was exacerbated by abuse and he died alone in hospital away from his family with no loved one to hold his hand or to give him comfort.

For more than 70 years, Roseann did not know what happened to her little brother and she lived with the trauma of feeling like she could have somehow done something to keep him safe. That haunted her. Roseann does not believe her parents were ever notified of Johnny's death, nor were they told where his young body was buried. In 2013, through extensive research, Roseann was finally able to locate Johnny's unmarked gravesite in High Prairie, nearly a hundred kilometres from their home.

In his memorial, Johnny's sister shared the following words about him: “You had acquired great strength from our forefathers and wisdom beyond your years. You were always so gentle, kind, caring and helpful. You had developed, through your pain, acceptance, courage, patience, understanding and tolerance.”

I have no doubt that Johnny's family was robbed of a boy who would have grown into a compassionate, intelligent man, an important member of their community and someone who could have given this country so much.

Roseann went on in her memorial to Johnny by saying, “Through the years, we often wondered about your final days alone, and the location of your resting place. Now that we have found each other again, perhaps we may begin to heal.”

The Kiyawasew family permitted me to share the story of Johnny to be a message of hope to the 215 families who are still waiting to be reunited with their loved ones, that they too may heal.

I also want to speak directly to Roseann from the floor of the House of Commons today. She is now living in a long-term care home in Grimsby, Ontario. I want to say to her, “You did not fail your brother, Roseann. Canada failed Johnny. The trauma you have had to live through and the grace you are showing in sharing your family's story of healing gives me hope that healing is possible for the 215 families of the children found in Kamloops. It also gives me hope that healing and reconciliation are possible for our country.”

This is not about partisanship or politics. It is about taking a step closer to reconciliation. Every MP and every Canadian has a role to play in reconciliation.

To me, reconciliation means recognizing areas where we have made mistakes or failed to do better. It also means striving to be better. It means learning from when we fall short ourselves in the journey of reconciliation, as I have in the past, but also acknowledging that reconciliation requires more than important but only symbolic gestures. It requires action. It requires restoring trust in the federal government and its institutions. It means building partnerships with indigenous communities for the well-being of all Canadians.

We must work together to shed light on this dark chapter of our history. We must acknowledge it, learn from it and make sure that it never happens again. That is my commitment to indigenous Canadians. We must listen and learn, and above all, we must not remain silent when people ask for something as basic and human as simply knowing where their children were buried and being able to commemorate them with respect and dignity.

When I think of those 215 children, I think of the tremendous contributions they might have made had they not been robbed of their futures. I think of the beautiful families they could have raised, and the knowledge-keepers and remarkable Canadians they could have become.

We owe it to each and every one of them to redouble our efforts today toward reconciliation and healing.

[Jaime Battiste, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

Mr. Chair, I noticed the member mentioned he would like to see us accelerate the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's calls to action 71 through 76, but I am wondering about number 57, which is the recommendation on UNDRIP.

Will he ask Conservative senators to support Bill C-15 and do what he can to help us ensure that all indigenous people are guaranteed equal human rights, as every other Canadian is?

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Durham, ON]

Mr. Chair, the member knows, or likely should know, that that is guaranteed in our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which predates UNDRIP. It is an important document that was started by a former Conservative member of Parliament.

I think all parliamentarians share our commitment to reconciliation, but what we have to do is make sure it is more than just important words, lowering of flags or gestures. These are important in healing, but it is more important to address the underlying unfairness, give certainty to the families, and give the ability, as Roseann and her family had, to heal.

I would ask that member to work with us to move swiftly on calls to action 71 to 76 by Canada Day. Let us have a plan to deliver the true potential of this great country for all Canadians.

[Andréanne Larouche, Bloc, Shefford, QC]

Mr. Chair, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his speech.

Tonight's debate is very emotional. We all feel it.

The hon. member told us that he is a father. As an aunt and status of women critic, my thoughts obviously go out to the mothers of these 215 children. What is sadder still is that we know that this is just the tip of the iceberg. That is what prominent representatives of indigenous communities, including Ghislain Picard and Michèle Audette, have said. In Quebec, more bodies of children who were taken from their mothers could be discovered.

On behalf of all those women who have been harmed, and knowing that indigenous women are still suffering a lot today, the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls issued its final report. One of the recommendations in the report was to implement Bill C-15 and sign the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This is important.

The Leader of the Opposition said that concrete action is required. Ensuring that Bill C-15 moves forward is one such action.

Will his party finally recognize that it is important to sign this international declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples?

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Durham, ON]

Mr. Chair, I thank my colleague for her question.

All first nations issues are important, including economic reconciliation. I read Bill C-15, an act respecting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Some indigenous people and indigenous leaders from various nations, including some in Quebec, have questions about a small part of this bill.

Today I talked about calls to action 71 to 76. We must make these a priority, for the sake of the grieving families.

Now is not the time to play politics. Now is the time to take action for families and indigenous people across the country. I started studying this issue long before I entered politics because it was important to me. That is why I mentioned my son Jack. It is important to have a serious debate about a serious matter. The residential schools were a national shame.

[Rachel Blaney, NDP, North Island—Powell River, BC]

Mr. Chair, elders across Canada have been very clear. There can be no healing without justice.

I wonder if the Leader of the Opposition, who has referred to residential schools as a place of higher learning, could answer why, when he was in government as a member of cabinet, their Conservative government denied the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's request of $1.5 million to research mass burial sites.

We know, as the survivors have told us again and again, that there are many children lost, buried without a marked grave, and their families are still searching. That government did not support that $1.5 million, which would have helped us to not be in the position we are in today.

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Durham, ON]

Mr. Chair, on these occasions it is important for us to not only show support to the families and communities suffering but to also debate and educate Canadians, including the member from the New Democratic Party, on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission calls to action, including the ones I am citing today. I would much have preferred for her to talk about partnering on them than be mistaken in her timeline with respect to a request from 2009. I do not think she was in this place. I was not in this place.

I want action. We have a Prime Minister who is very good at announcing things and saying words, but not good at delivering. The first nations on Vancouver Island deserve someone who is going to push for action, not to talk about 2009.

Therefore, I would be happy to work with her leader and her party on moving on calls to action 71 to 76 and, in the process, learning about how the apology, the lawsuit settlement by the last Conservative government, was a step. There are many more steps in the journey of healing required, but we need a much more serious and thoughtful approach from all parties.

[Dan Albas, Conservative, Central Okanagan—Similkameen—Nicola, BC]

Mr. Chair, I certainly appreciate hearing my leader share the story of Roseann. Hearing that single story was heartbreaking. I can only imagine that the 215 other stories, at very least, would be unimaginable.

I bring up again first nations from my riding. This is Upper Nicola Chief Harvey McLeod. He said:

We always knew that this was happening there, but it was in our own minds, we had no proof other than our own experience. We hear really horrific stories about what happened and dealing with our people that had passed on....

It's going to take a lot of strength to walk with our people while they remember the hurt and pain from that school. And it will be so much better when we're all united, working together to ensure we're there for our citizens.

Could the leader of the official opposition please comment on how to proceed to work together on reconciliation and coming to terms with this great trauma?

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Durham, ON]

Mr. Chair, that is why I brought the story of Roseann Kiyawasew to the floor of the Commons today. As Chief McLeod from the member's riding highlighted, it is about walking together on a journey of healing.

Roseann's journey to find where her little brother was buried took 70 years. That was 70 years of trauma and pain, feeling that she did not do enough, when it was the federal government that had failed her and her brother. In speaking with Chief Casimir today in Kamloops, and speaking with my colleague, the MP for Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo, I know this journey is an important one.

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission calls to action on missing children provide us a map for that journey. That is why I wrote to the Prime Minister yesterday on calls to action 71 to 76. That is why I am disappointed by the Bloc and the NDP. Rather than doing the real work of getting on that journey with Chief McLeod and with indigenous families, we see announcements with no plan, and we see partisanship when there is an opportunity to actually heal. Let us make the journey together.

We must work together for indigenous Canadians.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Mr. Chair, the Leader of the Opposition told my colleague that we should not respond with political arguments, yet that is what he just did by bringing up his plans for the future.

I will ask the question again. We are participating in a debate on the rights of indigenous peoples, which we buried with the residential schools. I will remind members that these rights were buried, and there is nothing more morbid in the current circumstances.

My question is about the rights of indigenous peoples, and it is very simple: Why did the Leader of the Opposition vote against Bill C-15, which would recognize the rights of indigenous peoples?

[Erin O'Toole, Conservative, Durham, ON]

Mr. Chair, I thank my colleague for his question.

Ironically, I was just talking yesterday with a few indigenous mayors and leaders from Abitibi—Témiscamingue. It was an important conversation for me as a new leader with a new approach as well as extensive experience in the private sector.

There would be many opportunities for economic reconciliation if we had a plan and a serious partnership with indigenous peoples. Thousands of indigenous leaders have reasonable questions about the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. I am more familiar with the file than my colleague is, and I am prepared to work for the well-being of indigenous people across the country.

[Yves-François Blanchet, Bloc, Beloeil—Chambly, QC]

Mr. Chair, I think that kind of attitude needs to be dropped right now. I know this may shock some people, and there are even people in my own entourage who do not like it when I say things like this, but that attitude of thinking that you know better than others and know what is best for them, it is so very white.

We are talking about 215 children buried in an unmarked grave, over a period of nearly a century. The cause of death is unknown, their ages are mere estimates, their names are generally unknown and their parents are also unknown.

That is the tragedy, and it is terrible. Beyond words, Parliaments, upholstered chairs and plush carpeting, that is the tragedy of this kind of attitude, an unbelievably arrogant colonial attitude from people occupying the territory by force and claiming superiority.

I am an anthropologist by training. It can be awesome, and it can be awful. It can be awful because, in an allegedly scientific framework, anthropologists claim to know their subject better than the subject knows themselves. As a result, the anthropologists think they are in a better position to decide matters for the subject than the subject themselves. However, it is a construct, beyond the desire to create a science out of finding differences captivating and enriching, somewhere between the extremes of vile prejudice and naked idealization. True acceptance is the mutual enrichment we gain from our differences. It serves no purpose whatsoever, all these years later, for parents to experience something that should never happen. A parent should never outlive their child. It makes no sense. It goes against the natural order.

Like some other members have mentioned, this past weekend, I too had issues with my children. I have several kids. You are a parent for life, except when your children are taken away. These children were locked away, uprooted, hidden, in order to be acculturated and robbed of their collective identity as members of a nation who have their own perspective and relationship to the Earth and to nature. They do not see it through the lens of appropriation. They do not experience the idea of nation as we do. Rather, they experience it in a relationship that is fundamentally and rightfully different.

Then someone came along and, allegedly without malice, but with immense interest, thought that it would be better to strip children of their identity, erase who they are and, perhaps worst of all, take away their relationship with their parents, under conditions so horrific that a staggering number of them would die before reaching adulthood, very likely from mistreatment and neglect, all in the name of religion, all supposedly for their benefit.

We are still reckoning with this history. Politics will come into it eventually, but today I am still coming to grips with the realization, because this day is forcing us to face facts. Before we can do any political analysis, which in some ways is fairly simple, we must deal with the constant agony of knowing that, by God, we did this.

It is not just 215 children near Kamloops. It is potentially thousands of children, because they came from nations whose land was being appropriated, and the white colonizer despised and envied them at the same time.

After all these years of suspecting this, it is now increasingly clear. We are starting to see the light, or better yet, we know that we could see the light. We can get to the bottom of this. Beyond the commissions, the analyses, the words, the commemorations, or before all that, there needs to be knowledge without complacency. The first step is to acquire that knowledge.

We learned that a technology that is used on construction sites, but is also used quite regularly in archeology and anthropology, helped pinpoint the location of this sad discovery in a rather simple way. It is true that this could be done elsewhere, and it can be done everywhere. There are no pleasant surprises in store, but the pain must not be used as an excuse to spare us from the need to get to the bottom of this matter.

That will take resources, but, honestly, I will say quickly that I do not care. It will definitely take some money, and the first nations will obviously not be asked to pay for it. The federal government needs to pay for that. It will take science, knowledge and the ability to use those technologies, so we will need the help of institutions, research centres and universities. To avoid any temptation, it will inevitably take quick, immediate, strong, unequivocal and lasting action to protect the sites. We have a duty to bring to light the truth.

We need to be aware of the worst parts of history, not so that we can brood about them but so that we can come to accept a profound loss, become aware of a former denial of dignity and remember that every first nation is one that has often been disenfranchised and humiliated. The government purported to be helping them while making them disappear. That was also said of French Canadians back in the day, but we are still here.

Beyond apologizing, what should we do? I do not know. Perhaps even the first nations do not really know yet either.

However, we must not tell them that we know what is good for them. When we talk about Bill C-15, we are talking about their initiative. We must not tell them that we are going to look into this. No. We need to listen. We need to focus on, receive and accept their requests and recommendations.

This morning, I was saying that there is no culture in the world that does not consider its children to be its most precious asset. It is therefore with humility, without self-pity and in the spirit of sincere friendship that we can perhaps admit that this is becoming political, if, and only if, the word “political” is used in its most noble sense, that of serving, taking action and correcting wrongs.

The first nations are kindred nations and friends on the same continent and, let us not forget, on one earth.

[Sébastien Lemire, Bloc, Abitibi—Témiscamingue, QC]

Mr. Chair, I thank my colleague from Beloeil—Chambly for his moving speech, which attests to his sensitivity. Having met with indigenous communities in my region together with my colleague, I can say that he has a great deal of empathy.

As he does not necessarily wish to speak about political actions, I will instead speak of a concept cherished by indigenous peoples, that of restorative justice. What can we do at this time to support the bereavement process in these communities?

[Yves-François Blanchet, Bloc, Beloeil—Chambly, QC]

Mr. Chair, I thank my esteemed colleague.

Is there justice that is not restorative? Despite all the uncertainty, when wrongdoing is committed, when the tragedy takes place, when the crime is committed, reparation consists of admitting what happened, listening, and mitigating the impact, the pain and the tragedy.

Once again, in this case, reparation does not come from claiming to know better than first nations what is good for them and their children, but comes from what the first nations want.

[Niki Ashton, NDP, Churchill—Keewatinook Aski, MB]

Mr. Chair, I would like to thank the leader of the Bloc Québécois for his truly moving speech. I would like to ask him if he agrees that it is time to recognize that Canada committed a genocide against indigenous peoples.

Does he agree that the federal government must do everything possible to search all grounds of former residential schools across the country, as first nations in my riding and across Canada are calling for? Does he agree that we must reveal the truth about this genocide before we can even think about reconciliation?

[Yves-François Blanchet, Bloc, Beloeil—Chambly, QC]

Mr. Chair, as I said in my remarks, the first step is of course to acquire knowledge. It seems cold and awful, but that means identifying the sites, analyzing them and using technology to search them virtually. That data will have to be compiled, just like the data on missing and murdered women, to document what happened so we can acknowledge it and reflect on what we did.

The point is not to take responsibility on a daily basis for something that happened years ago, but we do have to at least accept our shared historical responsibility for it. Naturally, resources will have to be deployed and the sites will have to be protected.

As for the notion of genocide, I am wary of getting into a semantic debate over words. I am not afraid of the word “genocide”, and I have no problem saying “cultural genocide” if there is a desire for acculturation. However, I will leave it to first nations to choose the term we should use.

[Gary Anandasangaree, Liberal, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations]

Mr. Chair, I would like to thank the leader of the Bloc Québécois for his heartfelt comments this evening.

I would like to ask him about the TRC recommendations. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission gave us 94 calls to action that attribute specific actions, depending on the level of government and toward different civil society organizations.

Would the Bloc support us in ensuring that all these calls to action, which are the purview of the federal government, are passed and that we work together to ensure we are on this path toward reconciliation? Could we count on his support to move forward?