Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, earlier this week I described my experience in my constituency with the federal firearms control task force as one of the most cynical efforts at manipulation I've ever seen in all my years of service as an MLA. Today I would like to elaborate on why I would use such strong language.

Most people who communicate across a language and cultural barrier understand that special sensitivity is required. It's not enough to engage the services of an interpreter; one must speak in language the interpreter can understand, especially when describing complex legislation.

The Members of the federal firearms task force who came to my community could not speak plain English. I wrote down a typical, painful example. The Ottawa visitors were asked by my constituents why experienced hunters should have to take gun safety courses. The Ottawa bureaucrats, in reply, tried to ask my constituents whether they could suggest another way to recognize the skills of experienced hunters other than by making them take a course. Here is how the bureaucrat asked the question of a unilingual member of the Amarok HTA, "is there a non-invasive way of validating their competence?". Mr. Speaker, this is not plain language. This is bureaucratic gobbledegook.

Unless issues like compulsory registration, lending and licence requirements are dealt with, Bill C-68 is quite clearly a substantial infringement of the aboriginal right to hunt. The Supreme Court of Canada has clearly ruled in the Sparrow case that the rights of aboriginal peoples in Canada cannot be infringed by a government. In the rare case where infringement of an aboriginal right may be justified, the court said that there must first be meaningful consultation with the aboriginal people involved.

I want to say as clearly as possible to the federal Justice Minister Allan Rock and to any judge who in future may be asked to consider this issue, that I believe the records of this Assembly, statements of many of my colleagues about the lack of notice, the rushed timetable, the poor presentation and communication, clearly establishes that on Bill C-68 my constituents have not been meaningfully consulted by the federal government. I say they haven't been consulted at all. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.