Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank the Rules Committee for bringing this forward and also to my colleague that I have sat next to here for some time and across the room in P and P.

Definitely, today was a lot of stress, a lot of pressure. You see a sense of healing when someone can speak like that to something so powerful, and especially when it feels like someone is being zeroed in on. I definitely felt that. I think there is a sense of healing and a sense of moving forward.

We talked about candidacy and eligibility. I know I don't support family violence, but at the same time, we don't talk about healing. The Northwest Territories consists of so many different Aboriginal groups from all walks of life and the differences from poverty to wealth are so extreme that sometimes I look at something like this and I think they're so far from the actual -- some live life in poverty it's so far-fetched from that that there's nothing that reflects people who live in poverty or live in smaller communities who don't really have a voice.

I've worked with men's healing groups, you know, in different parts of Canada and I see that men are totally, in a sense, are less looked at. As far as healing, I just had a text here from one of the leaders in my region saying that someone was just sent home. Okay, where's the after care? I think we need to focus on the after care programs for people who have attempted suicide and people who have offended and people who are struggling. We don't look at those aspects of their lives but we judge them right away at an instance, and I think that's totally unfair and I think it takes away from what an Indigenous person has to offer.

My colleague Mr. Beaulieu mentioned having Indigenous people who can speak their languages. Yesterday, we had some people talking about revitalizing language and that's something we have to focus on. Look at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission; they're looking at ways to implement that. Even here in the Territories we're so far behind from colonialism and other pressures of Indigenous people from other sources. The GNWT includes Indigenous people with the mining industry, so in a sense there are some good positives there that we can focus on and build on and look at those as examples of working together.

There are Indigenous groups who are negotiating their land claims. We need to focus on those and say, okay, well, how is the system working and is it working for the people of their respective regions across the territory?

I work with Indigenous groups around the world and I see that Indigenous peoples are totally unrepresented and sometimes don't even have a voice. So, in a sense, in Canada here we're lucky that we're focusing on Indigenous peoples, including making them a priority. We need to ensure that they have a voice and that the people who they decide to elect for office is up to the people. I believe that if we take that away from Indigenous peoples or from non-Indigenous peoples then we're taking a step backwards.

Mr. Sebert mentioned earlier about the timeline of when women were able to vote or when people of different ethnicity were able to vote. I think that's a good example of which way we're going and we need to continue going that way. In that sense, I won't be voting for this motion. Thank you, Mr. Chair.