...but I am worked up about this issue, and I know Members will show some tolerance because this might be my last session in this Legislature.
---Laughter
I am tantalizing you. Mr. Speaker, when your Caucus committee on Bill C-68 went on April 24th to make the first appearance after Justice Minister Allan Rock before the Standing Committee on Justice and Legal Affairs, we noted that many Members of the specially appointed firearms task force were present in the committee room to hear our submissions about the major problems posed by Bill C-68: that it is not understood by the people of the north; that compulsory registration will not be respected in the NWT any more than the present firearms laws are respected; that Bill C-68 represented nothing less than a full-out frontal attack on our people's way of life on the land and that the bill would certainly have the effect of eroding respect for law and order and turning our people into a culture of criminals.
We urged Members of the committee, or the chairman, to come to the north to directly hear from our citizens to find out how this bill, as drafted, would undermine what is unique and special about our northern way of life. We were told by officials of the Department of Justice, who made up the firearms control task force, don't worry, we will soon be coming to the north to hear first hand from us, that this is how they would learn about our concerns and that this is how they would make changes to the implementation of the regime so that it would respect the aboriginal right to hunt and take into account our modern way of life outdoors in the north.
Mr. Speaker, this promise of consultation was a fraud and one of the most cynical efforts at manipulation I have ever seen in my 16 years of public service as an MLA in this Legislative Assembly. My constituents in Iqaluit were the first group of people in the NWT to be "consulted" by the firearms control task force. They were not consulted. They were shamelessly used and abused. I would like to get unanimous consent to continue, Mr. Speaker.