Canadian Heritage committee  Okay. You didn't give me a time, so I didn't know how much time I had.

Canadian Heritage committee  I never talked to the clerk. I'm sorry.

Canadian Heritage committee  Thank you. Good afternoon. [Witness spoke in Dakelh] Today I want to share at least one indigenous language that comes from this continent, a language that belongs to my people. It's a Dene language. We call ourselves Dakelh. We come from the northern part of British Columbia

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes, the Supreme Court has referred that. That is a very excellent reference around the reconciliation between the assumed crown sovereignty with pre-existing aboriginal sovereignty. Practically, what does it mean? We have the Delgamuukw and Gisday'way cases, and the Tsilhqot’i

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights is still a declaration. It's not a convention, but it's widely applied internationally. This declaration is the universal UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and sits in a parallel place with the 1948 declaration. Se

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. That word “aspirational” is a Conservative Party word, and I've never accepted that word. It's more than aspirational. What happens on the day this bill passes? Well, the declaration has been in place for over 10 years. It is part of the international legal constru

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  No, no. What will change is that there will be legal underpinnings for the rights and the declaration, and Canadian law will have to be considered in harmony with the human rights standards internationally. There are international human rights standards, some of which are absolut

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Subsection 35(1), which is an important constitutional provision, has 17 words and says: The existing aboriginal and treaty rights of the aboriginal peoples of Canada are hereby recognized and affirmed. I would like to underscore the words “hereby” and “recognized and affirme

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I would take that word “define”, exchange it for another word, and say how these rights will “coexist”: how an indigenous government, an indigenous governmental authority, and the national government can work out the coexistence of their relationship. In the process, you'll hav

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I will leave it at that. I do have a written submission, which I will present to the clerk.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. I acknowledge the Algonquin people on whose ancestral lands where we gather here. I also want to acknowledge your presence and the work you are doing on this particular bill. I want to acknowledge the presentations by my colleagues. Craig Benjamin's remarks are par

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's not only that. It's cold over here.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Thank you. That's a very good question, Mr. Amos. It's not just wildfire. Take my wife's community, for example, which is Musqueam. The City of Vancouver has developed around the territory of the peoples there. They have an agreement with the City of Vancouver for dealing with

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'll give you an answer by way of a story from Chief Ron Ignace from Skeetchestn, just outside of Kamloops. He said he was surprised to find Australian firefighters coming into his territory to respond to a crisis situation. He said they were in the midst of preparing their own f

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I know that your communities were impacted in a big way as well. Let me put it this way. When I talked to the deputy minister for Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation British Columbia during the height of this and following, I said that we needed support in these communities.