Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to speak a little bit more today about our elders and their birth dates. I have met many elders over the past couple of years -- not collectively, but as individuals -- regarding their birth dates and birth certificates. Many of the elders have come to me about their inability to have their birth certificates corrected. I have heard story upon story about the circumstances surrounding the time of each person's birth. One may be the year that there was great hunger or the year that the first missionaries came. These were usually told to them by one of their parents, or one of their older relatives.
As David Woodman has discovered, Inuit will tell circumstances about their surroundings with much accuracy. He has written a book called, "Unravelling the Franklin Expedition" and, contrary to popular belief, using Inuit testimony and connecting them to the diaries of various writers, he has been able to come up with a theory which substantiates Inuit testimony about Sir John Franklin's demise.
Mr. Speaker, I liken this book to the statutory declarations that the Department of Safety and Public Services receives from elders regarding birth dates. I'm also glad to see that there is another Member, Mr. Ng, who will confirm my concerns. There are still a considerable number of errors in many Inuit birth certificates. Before project surname, we had to use disc numbers. Even I remember using them, as mine was E2591.
I give credit to those who initiated project surname and Abe Okpik for getting rid of our dog tags, as that is an incredible amount of work. However, as stated in the summary of project surname, "Mistakes have been made. Some of them will take years to straighten out, a few may never be corrected." Mr. Speaker, one of the remarks I heard went as follows, "People have spoken of when they lived on the land. They didn't have calendars. People didn't know what year they were born. When the RCMP came to find out birth dates, the RCMP guessed the date and people would just agree to the date suggested."
Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to continue my statement.