Mr. Speaker, I will tell members when things stopped improving; it was when we put in place the Indian Act. It was bad from the start and it is still bad, because that is what we call legislated racism: the Indian Act. The fact is that even I, as a woman under the Indian Act right now, do not have the same rights as other women, never mind as men. As well, we still have not amended the Indian Act, and we talk about amending it incrementally.
It impacts the safety of women. In fact, it was only less than 20 years ago that the Divorce Act was amended so women who were getting divorced on reserve had property rights. I am divorced, happily. However, if I had been living on a reserve at the time I divorced, I would have zero property rights. That is called legislated racism, which has been perpetuated in the House.
We can call it Indigenous Services Canada or a Crown-indigenous relationship. We can call it Kermit the Frog. We need to get rid of the Indian Act and replace it with human rights in this country.