Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to enter into the discussion on such an important issue.
I would just note two things before I begin my remarks.
I appreciate that there is a somberness about the chamber, a seriousness in which this issue has been taken here this evening, and I appreciate the importance of taking these things very seriously. I would suggest, and certainly I know this with myself as well, that there are many issues on which we will show passion, partisanship and that sort of thing, but I believe this is one of those instances in which we see genuine care and concern. Albeit there would be differences with respect the application of some policies, and we have heard a few of those differences here this evening, I think some of the discussions we have been able to have this evening show the strength of our democratic institutions in being able to respond to this sort of thing and to then reflect on the words.
Of course, the blues do not come out in real time, but when my previous colleague from Manitoba spoke, he shared that although a lot of work has been done, it is about making sure that we, and I am paraphrasing, do not just talk about it: The work actually needs to get done. I could not agree more on ensuring that it does happen.
I would like to start my speech by recognizing those who have lost their lives so tragically in the last number of weeks. I would like to put their names into the record here this evening, as I know a number of my colleagues have done: Steven Dedam, Danny Knife, Hoss Lightning, Jack Piche, Tammy Bateman and Jason West. I acknowledge the trauma and loss to their families, friends and communities, who are all suffering at this time. The youngest was 15 years old.
My kids are not quite there yet, but as a parent, I certainly could not imagine the loss of a child. My heart goes out to those who are hurting. I am certainly praying for them and standing with them as they grieve, and I hope action can be taken to ensure that unnecessary violence like this does not take more lives.
Further, I will not go into details, but to acknowledge that in my home community, and these are very different circumstances, a couple of young men were killed in a car accident the other day. I know it has devastated the community. My wife stopped by the school in the small town in which I live today. These are very different circumstances, so I am not drawing a parallel on that, but rather the fact that loss impacts entire communities, and I know that is in fact the case.
When it comes to the circumstances we are addressing here tonight, they are not new. In fact, I have had the opportunity, not only my time in elected office but also as someone involved in politics who cares deeply for the community and communities in which I have lived, and as a political staffer, to engage with so many across western Canada specifically. I think of my time when I worked for the Government of Saskatchewan, when Brad Wall was the premier of Saskatchewan, and having many conversations.
I will not go into the specifics; I was a staffer sitting in a room with MLAs at the time. After learning about this debate, I took some time to think back to some of those conversations, including hearing from indigenous people and indigenous leaders who shared their challenges and their history very openly, honestly and profoundly, and how impactful that was. I won't get into the specifics, but in a few instances, communities had faced profound loss. I remember specifically a particular instance when three types of groups were meeting with this group of MLAs over the course of a number of days, and one of them was with indigenous leaders, chiefs, band councils and some folks and elders in the community who were very respected.
They shared their perspectives on the loss that these communities had faced. We heard from police, both the leadership and some of the officers, very frank conversations, about what had happened and was happening. There was a particular instance with one individual. As a staffer, trying to facilitate things and take notes, and for those in this place who have been staffers and for those staffers watching, it is sometimes a little chaotic for a political staffer, as I know my colleague was at one time. It was one of those moments where the interaction spoke.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Although it was not a picture that was taken, watching the interactions spoke as much as the words shared during the course of that meeting. It was the sharing of how there had been broken trust with authority figures, which were not limited to but included police. I think back to the look on the face of the individual. It took guts and courage that I could not imagine for this individual to come and speak to this group of elected officials and to share her story. I think back to, again, just watching that. I heard those words, and I will not share any of those specifics, but it took profound courage. The call was to listen, to engage and to ensure that, in particular, her voice and the voices of so many were given the opportunity to be heard and that there would be change brought about as a result.
That interaction will continue to leave a deep impact. As I have reflected over the last number of hours, there is the need to ensure that indigenous people are empowered and are given the opportunity to be a part of that change. I have the honour and the privilege to serve the people of Battle River—Crowfoot. I have mentioned this before. Battle River is named after the Battle River, which is a small, spring-fed river, interestingly enough, that has deep indigenous history.
Crowfoot is named after the famous Chief Crowfoot. While there are lots of places in Calgary named Crowfoot, much of the area where he and his people spent their time were the plains that are now part of the area that I have the honour of representing. I have reflected on this and the rich history and the lessons that can be taught.
This will not be a surprise, and I know many members and others have heard me talk about farming, but I am proud to be part of a multi-generational family farm. It is a little too wet to be combining today, but my dad is hoping that he can get into the field tomorrow. We have a number of fields adjacent to some native prairie land, grassland that is thousands of years old. For time immemorial it has been grassland. In fact, the roots of that grass go down, in some cases, 20 to 30 feet into the earth, and it is absolutely incredible nutritional value alone for livestock, for cattle, and, of course, for the buffalo that preceded settlers heading west.
What is interesting and the reason I share this, is the profound impact when we look at the sky in a rural area when we are farming, in particular when we are near an area where we knew that it was not that many years ago, in the context of time. We have the opportunity to see the same stars that would have provided guidance to people who traversed these lands not that long ago.
In fact, I was sharing this with my children because there are a number of historic cairns in the area that the Spencer Historical Sites Society erected. In particular, there were two cairns dedicated to the North West Mounted Police, which is now known as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. I would note that we have a history in this country, and while there is a lot of bad, there are things that set us apart from, and compared to, the Americans. I would note one thing that set us apart was the fact that we did not go in with the military, when that was the story of many of the relationships with indigenous people south of the 49th parallel.
Now, I am not saying there is not bad there. I am not saying that at all, but what I am suggesting is that we have seen how we can work together. We look at the history; in particular, one of these cairns is where there was the coming into force of Treaty 6 at Sounding Lake, which is a dry lake bed. It is filled on wet years and dry on dry years. There is known to be lots of grassland in that area. It is quite a large lake, at least for rural Alberta, where our lakes are quite different from some of the lakes we would find around here or in the mountains. Reading this cairn, it talks about how there were up to 10,000 people, the vast majority of whom were indigenous peoples, at the coming into force of Treaty 6, in particular. About a mile from that location there is a cairn that marks some former barracks of the North-West Mounted Police. There is an opportunity to see that as working together. That was seen at the time as a hopeful moment, and certainly there have been many broken promises since the late 1800s when those agreements were signed.
We can look back in history. I anticipate truth and reconciliation day, of course, coming at the end of this month. I am looking forward to being in the constituency on that day, although there is not a huge number of flights. It will probably have to be a red-eye coming back that night. However, it is profound, because I took my kids to share some of the rich indigenous history across east central Alberta, and there were two things in particular that stood out. One was Dry Island Buffalo Jump and its history. For 3,000 years, they think, up until just a few hundred years ago, a time that is hard to imagine, that area was a sacred space. There are the Ribstones and the Manitou Stone, which ongoing work is being done on. That stone comes from my area.
The reason I share those things is that we see tragedy and we see families that are broken as a result of institutions that are not working properly. We need to show care and compassion, and we need to figure out how to empower those individuals, who have an absolutely incredible history, with an ability to see justice that may look a bit different from what some in this place think it should, in terms of what that looks like, and I had that opportunity just last week. With Police Chief LaGrange in Camrose, along with my provincial counterparts, the provincial ministers of justice and of public safety, I had the opportunity to attend the Alberta Community Justice Awards hosted in the beautiful city of Camrose, which I have the honour of representing.
It was interesting, and this was not planned, that when I was asked to speak about this very important issue, I started reading through the biographies of the award recipients, and a number of them are showing how we can incorporate restorative justice and indigenous history, ensuring that there are community-led solutions so we can reduce the number of these tragedies and make sure that victims are supported.
One of the tragedies that exists is the number of victims who are not getting the support they need. We look at some of the other major issues that we are facing. My colleague the shadow minister for Crown-indigenous relations, from the Conservative side, talked earlier about the need for indigenous-led solutions for policing. The need for that is absolute. In the meantime, there are contracts, and he dove into some of the details about the tripartite agreements that exist and how there need to be some changes to those sorts of things, to ensure they are reflective of the modern reality.
In the midst of all that, the key is to ensure that we are listening to the community leaders, who are truly able to inform us of what is happening on the ground. As mentioned by a number of my colleagues, an Ottawa-knows-best solution is not needed. What is needed is to ensure that indigenous people are empowered.
I have spoken to indigenous leaders over the last couple of years, and I know the leader of the official opposition, the member for Carleton, has talked a lot about ensuring that indigenous communities across Canada are empowered. In particular, he has talked a lot about the policy platform in relation to resource development and making sure that indigenous people have the opportunity to benefit, to be the architects of their future, to not be held up by gatekeepers or by a bloated bureaucracy that does not understand the reality on the ground or the customs and demands of local communities and to make sure that people are ultimately empowered.
A massive issue has been ensuring that we are able to address some of the challenges in relation to addiction. I am sure my colleague, the shadow minister for addictions, will have an opportunity to speak more about this, but we need give the opportunity in an indigenous-specific way. Each community will probably look at that differently, and that is okay. We should not be afraid of that. The worst thing that could happen is an Ottawa-knows-best approach that does not reflect the reality of what communities need. We need to ensure there is an opportunity, as the leader of the official opposition talks about, to ensure that we can bring our loved ones home. That is a need for every segment of those who call Canada home. That is very needed. I have talked to folks in indigenous communities who want to see that.
I know there were examples shared like banning drugs and needing searches. In fact, I made a note that it was mentioned earlier about a particular airport in this country for some of the fly-in communities in northern Ontario. It is a practical solution, which I hope will be acted on. It is something that seems too simple not to act on, although sometimes the “too simple” stuff in Ottawa seems to be the stuff that is unnecessarily complicated.
A suggestion was made earlier by a colleague from another party that when we fly with Air Canada in and out of a particular airport, which happened to be Thunder Bay that he was referring to, we have to go through security, like we all do when we fly to the nation's capital to go to work. It was the first time I had heard this, so I will share this with a few different people in the room now. It turns out that there are no searches on planes that go into these fly-in communities when they are not through that particular terminal. It seems to me, and the suggestion was made, that those searches should take place. There should be a basic level of security, and that is something that Transport Canada could simply get on, and hat would help stop the flow of drugs, these toxic poisons, from a centre into those fly-in communities.
In the couple of minutes I have left, I would just note that the miscarriage of justice is an important issue, to ensure that we have action taken for those who have not been served well by a justice system. We need to have a system across the board, whether that is the police or not, including in those in indigenous communities. We need to have a court system. We need to have treatment for those who are facing addiction. We need to have a whole cross-section of what the system is in our country. It needs to reflect the realities that Canadians are facing because increasingly, there are tragedies like this that remind us there are those who are falling through the cracks.
I believe that colleagues from all parties this evening have reminded us that it is time for us not only to talk about the solutions, but also to make sure we act on them. I would suggest that the simple solution to that is for us to empower these communities because they are the ones with the answers that can truly make transformative change so that we do not need to have these sorts of debates again.
