Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I am outraged by the events surrounding the treatment of armed forces personnel who plead guilty to illegally killing caribou during operation Nordic Reliant. These people were practising survival techniques designed for extreme situations.

Mr. Speaker, what do you think would happen to me, as an aboriginal person, if I was to go to a farm outside Winnipeg, where these fellows are from, and shoot a cow which belongs to someone else in order to practise what I might have to do under extreme conditions? Do you think I would get a sharp lawyer to help me out? Do you think I might get an absolute discharge? I do not think so.

Mr. Speaker, this event reflects the same mentality that has plagued relations between aboriginal and non-native people for at least 500 years. Whether it involves using soldiers to take away sacred land and turn it into a golf course, whether it involves disrupting the peaceful skies of Labrador with the roar of low level flying exercises, or whether it involves coming into a traditional northern hunting area and slaughtering our caribou with automatic weapons. This behaviour reflects an attitude of disrespect and colonial superiority which should have died with General Custer.