Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I have already spoken about the federal government's $26 million initiative dealing with the administration of aboriginal justice. While I believe that this project is long overdue, I am concerned about the federal position to appoint a former Chief Crown Counsel for the Northwest Territories as Director General of the Minister's Aboriginal Justice Council. The lawyer, Don Avison, is the same Crown Prosecutor who ordered the arrest of Kitty Nowdluk Reynolds, an Inuit woman who had been beaten and raped in Iqaluit.

Ms. Nowdluk was subsequently arrested at her new home in British Columbia, detained in a Vancouver jail for 4 days, dragged across Canada in handcuffs, and locked in a van with the same man who had raped her. After all of that, the Crown Counsel made a last minute decision that her testimony was not even needed. This shameful episode was initiated by the same Don Avison, who is now Director of the Federal Initiative on Aboriginal Justice.

Mr. Speaker, when the R.C.M.P. Commissioner, Norman Inkster, appeared before the House of Commons Justice Committee in April of 1992, he apologized for R.C.M.P. mistreatment of the victim. In contrast, shortly after the incident was reported, Mr. Avison appeared on Focus North and attempted to justify his decision to arrest Kitty.

The federal initiative on aboriginal justice is long waited.