Mr. Speaker, it saddens me that I spill hear people downplay the reality of racism in Canadian. Yet, I ask anyone who wishes to downplay the pain of those protesting as we speak, I ask a white person to ask themselves if their child was Black whether life would be easier or harder for that child. We should not have to use such analogies to show the importance, but maybe the fact that we do is commentary of where we are as a nation. There is no doubt that a person of colour has a harder time and the game is rigged against them from the moment they are born. That is what is meant by systemic racism. It is not just the hatred that rots people's souls. It is a series of subtle and somewhat invisible cultural norms that make life harder for anyone whose skin is not white. A culture which makes is a young Indigenous boy or girl search for self-esteem unnecessarily harder.

Mr. Speaker, we cannot let those voices go unheard. We in this House have a job to break the cycle. There is no shortage of systemic issues we can face in this House. When we pass a budget that gives $47 million to the RCMP and only $400,000 to First Nations policing, that's institutional racism. When we negotiate self-government agreements, but the entire criminal justice system and the criminal code is off the table, that is institutional racism, Mr. Speaker. When the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls go out and conduct interviews across this country and then the federal government and our government fails to get an action plan in place, that is systemic racism, Mr. Speaker. These are not overt acts of hatred. These are a misalignment of priorities and a shying away from the very difficult work we are tasked to do.

Mr. Speaker, when the RCMP uses the entire North as a place to hide officers who have been convicted of sexual assault, that's institutional racism. When some new rookie officer shows up and decides that integrating themselves into the community and building an understanding of the culture is not their priority, that is institutional racism.

There is an inherent privilege awarded to whiteness in this country, Mr. Speaker. That is a fact, and it is a fact we all need to change. If we are truly committed to ending racism, it requires a serious reconfiguration of all our systems. It requires societal and cultural change where people give up their privilege, where people recognize the systems they operate in and work to change them. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.