Canadian Heritage committee  —but there could be more clarity there too.

Canadian Heritage committee  I would be pleased to submit some written materials. I didn't think I could in advance of this session—ironically due to language rules, because if there weren't time for it to be translated, it wouldn't make its way to the committee anyway.

Canadian Heritage committee  Certainly clause 8 speaks to the possibility of co-operation with the provinces, which I think is very constructive. I'm not sure that other means are to be found in the legislation itself so much as in constructive dialogue with the provinces to bring them on board, and that's an important ongoing initiative to engage in.

Canadian Heritage committee  I have no doubt that there are instances where this becomes an issue, and you may have seen many of them. I don't disagree with anything you've said there, but I also think that it would be overly ambitious to expect that from this particular legislation right now—

Canadian Heritage committee  What is a definition of rights for those languages?

Canadian Heritage committee  That's going beyond even anything I necessarily suggested defining. I think the commissioner is going to have certain dilemmas about what exact support to give to different languages in light of the different requests that come in. [Inaudible--Editor] will always be a limited budget, relative to the needs that could be supported.

Canadian Heritage committee  I would think that the particular rights for different languages are going to differ, based on a lot of different factors. Tragically, there are languages that are beyond the point of no return, in a sense, if they're down to a handful of speakers. There may be value in preserving and digitizing those languages, but there's not going to be an ability to save and revitalize those languages in the same way that there is for a language that has the possibility of being a vibrant language of life for communities.

Canadian Heritage committee  I think it would be constructive to fix it rather than have inconsistent versions. I'm not an expert on English language drafting, let alone French language drafting or bilingual drafting, but the language chosen in the English and French versions of clause 7 differs in ways not seen in other indigenous rights documents from the Government of Canada.

Canadian Heritage committee  Right. In terms of the adequacy, it's open to some interpretation. It's something that could be determined through the ongoing processes. But there might be ways to offer a clearer definition to what would be considered adequate, particularly if this is giving rise to a funding obligation on the one possible interpretation of it.

Canadian Heritage committee  Can I come off of mute?

Canadian Heritage committee  Okay. Sorry. I didn't hear to whom that was directed. I actually moved quickly through the additional matters that I was raising. I think I addressed all of them quickly. The one I was speaking to near the end concerns clause 24. I just highlight briefly the way in which that clause is constructed in terms of provision.

Canadian Heritage committee  [Inaudible—Editor] languages for the sake of languages, but for the sake of the communities they support. I would see that as the broad aim of revitalizing languages. Certainly it may be pertinent in the context of access to justice and the courts as well. Within the court system, of course, there are charter rights in relation to translation of proceedings that are available when needed, at least within the criminal justice context.

Canadian Heritage committee  I'm sorry to run over time. I'll just raise the question of whether the construction of clause 24 on research that may be undertaken by the office is too tightly framed. The use of specific examples in the subclauses will tend to limit the interpretation of the general language in the chapeau provision in the clause.

Canadian Heritage committee  Good evening. My name is Dwight Newman. I am a professor of law and Canada research chair in indigenous rights in constitutional and international law at the University of Saskatchewan. I carry on a broad-based program of research on indigenous rights, constitutional law and international law.

Natural Resources committee  Well, it ends up being a decision at the band council level to enter into agreements. Obviously, there's a democratic process within the community. This is a simpler context, perhaps, than some of those in British Columbia, where we've seen divisions between the Indian Act leadership and the hereditary leadership, which present additional challenges when there's a stronger division that way.