Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, I rise today to thank the Deh Cho Tribal Council for the very informative presentation they gave to Members of the House on February 17, 1994. I think this presentation gave some Members, both from the east and west, a better understanding of some of the positions taken by Dene leaders in the Treaty 11 area. It is important, Madam Speaker, for everyone to remember that this was a peace treaty. There was no war. It was purely and simply a peace treaty.
We ask that people do not give up any of their rights to the land or their way of life. Madam Speaker, the major problem with this and other treaties that were negotiated between Canada and the aboriginal nations was the difference between what was promised verbally to the chiefs and what actually came to be put on paper. Madam Speaker, for years Pat Buggins of my constituency has been telling me that the documents that exist refutes the context of Treaty 11. The former catholic bishop of the Mackenzie, Bishop Gabriel Breynet, wrote down the entire statement in 1937. The actual wording of Treaty 11 differs greatly from what Bishop Breynet translated and others took to be promised by the government in 1921.
These verbal agreements and promises were, and as far as we are concerned, part of the parcel of the written provision of Treaty 11. It must be interpreted as such. Madam Speaker, maybe this is why aboriginal people are getting much better with the paperwork. Thank you, Madam Speaker.