Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to join the debate.
This is a very proud moment. I could not be more proud than to be here to witness the imminent passing of the Nisga'a deal and to watch this first nation take its first courageous step toward true independence and cast off the shackles of what can only be described as 130 years of social tragedy, which is the Indian Act.
I find it ironic that the Reform Party, which I believe advocates more independence for aboriginal people, would like to see them stand alone, be proud and be masters of their own destiny, is speaking so vehemently against the Nisga'a deal which does in fact give the Nisga'a people just that leg up, just that very thing. The Nisga'a deal will allow this particular first nation to take that first courageous step toward true independence.
I am dumbfounded by some of the remarks I have heard from the Reform Party over the last couple of years about aboriginal people. It disappoints me to say the least. That is the most polite way I can say it. It really disappoints me to hear Canadians push myths about the deal to further their own goals.
One of the things I found galling was that Reform members compared the Nisga'a deal to apartheid in South Africa. The only explanation for such a ridiculous thing to say is that they have no idea what the apartheid regime in South Africa really was. My belief is that they do not really understand apartheid.
I did a little bit of research for their benefit. I went to the Library of Parliament and dug up some of the acts and bills that actually constituted the apartheid regime in South Africa. It contains 75 pages with probably 4 or 5 bills and a little outline of what each one was on each page. It was a well orchestrated and deliberate attempt to oppress a people, the majority black people in South Africa. There are things in the apartheid regime that are absolutely horrifying. I will not waste any time going through them because I think most people here know what true apartheid is.
It is absolutely intellectually dishonest to even imply that the Nisga'a deal has anything to do with apartheid. It trivializes the struggle of black South Africans as they liberated themselves from their white oppressors. We are seeing a similar thing here as this particular group of people betters their own destiny.
What makes me very happy about the Nisga'a deal is that we are seeing the death rattle of the Reform Party's two year campaign to try to discredit aboriginal people. For the two years that I have been here all I have heard is sniping, complaining and allegations of gross corruption and abuse of funds, trying to string together a bunch of isolated events into one argument that all aboriginal people are somehow either incompetent, corrupt or both. I am getting sick of hearing it.
I am celebrating the fact that pretty soon we will be able to have the vote and it will, I hope, shut the Reform Party up in that regard. It has been nothing but a campaign of abuse toward aboriginal people.
I lived in the Yukon for many years. I lived in quite close quarters with many aboriginal people. I lived for the better part of 10 years in the small community of Dawson city. I got to know and respect aboriginal culture. I was sensitized maybe to their issues because of that time spent. I have always been very keen. Even in high school, instead of taking French I took Cree. In retrospect, maybe I should have taken French because Cree does not help me too much in this place. Maybe that is why I find it more galling than most to have to sit here and listen to the tirades and inaccuracies trying to misrepresent what the Nisga'a deal is all about.
There are a series of myths that the Reform members have been hanging their hat on. Some are worse than others. The first thing they have been trying to say is that the Nisga'a treaty is race based. This is the same connection to the apartheid regime that they have been trying to sell. It is in fact justice based. It is the pursuit of social justice. It is the manifestation of the goodwill that most Canadians feel toward aboriginal people when we want to see them achieve true independence, which is what the Nisga'a deal will do for them.
A referendum in British Columbia is another thing the Reform Party has been calling for. There has been a great deal of consultation in British Columbia. Forty meetings have been held throughout British Columbia. The NDP government has been very careful to do in depth, comprehensive consultations. We have been all alone. When I say we I mean the NDP government has been left hung out to dry by the Liberal government. It could have moved on the Nisga'a deal months ago instead of letting this divisiveness boil in British Columbia as long as it has.
I am also disappointed that we have somehow been, through political mischief, forced to have five more public hearings in the province of British Columbia as the aboriginal affairs committee tours that province. It is pure political mischief. It will come to no good. It is the death rattle of the Reform Party as it tries to desperately cling to colonialism. What it really wants to do is entrench that model of Eurocentric colonialism that it is so comfortable with and from which it comes.
Many people do not know about an organization called B.C. FIRE. The Reform Party will probably also deny that it knows anything about it.
The irony is that a researcher for a Reform Party MP quit his job on the Hill two years ago and went to British Columbia. He set up what is called B.C. FIRE, the foundation for individual rights and equality, or some such thing. Really it is the anti-Indian movement of British Columbia.
The Reform Party is the political wing of the anti-Indian movement in British Columbia and it is atrocious. This particular individual, and I will not mention the name of the member of parliament he worked for but the member is still here, left his job here. Maybe he was dispatched. Maybe he was even sent to British Columbia by the Reform Party to set up the hate movement in British Columbia.
