Discussion · Government Orders
Leah Gazan NDP
“The government did not properly consult First Nations leaders on this clean water bill. Consulting Indigenous peoples is not optional. It is a constitutional requirement, and Indigenous people deserve the same basic right to clean water as everyone else.”
“Madam Speaker, I certainly cannot speak on behalf of all first nations people in the country. What I can say as a legislator is that the Liberal government is treating the duty to consult and accommodate and free, prior and informed consent as optional constitutional rights. These are not options for the government. It has done that certainly with this bill, where there has been a very clear indication from first nations and indigenous leaders, particularly in this case of the water bill for first nations leaders, that they were not consulted on this bill. I do not know any first nations leader or person, including me, who accepts that I have a comparable right to other people in this country to drink clean water. That is violent. It reeks of ripping from indigenous people the most basic dignity in this country: the right to clean water.”
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Madam Speaker, I certainly cannot speak on behalf of all first nations people in the country. What I can say as a legislator is that the Liberal government is treating the duty to consult and accommodate and free, prior and informed consent as optional constitutional rights. These are not options for the government. It has done that certainly with this bill, where there has been a very clear indication from first nations and indigenous leaders, particularly in this case of the water bill for first nations leaders, that they were not consulted on this bill. I do not know any first nations leader or person, including me, who accepts that I have a comparable right to other people in this country to drink clean water. That is violent. It reeks of ripping from indigenous people the most basic dignity in this country: the right to clean water.