Senator LaBoucane-Benson: I thank you for that. If this bill were perfect, it would name the actual nations that were here, and it’s not. Using inclusive language would help Métis people understand that we acknowledge that they have traumas as well, that they have suffered as well, that they went to day schools and some residential schools, that they experienced systemic racism, and that they have lived their lives in a country that has seen them as less than — and that is why I am advocating for inclusive language.

[Translation]

Senator LaBoucane-Benson: Thank you for that question. I do not speak on behalf of all Métis people, and I think my honourable colleague said that she had conversations — which I wasn’t a part of — and that that would not be the case.

As a Métis person, I also want to say that the understanding of Métis as mixed blood is a way of thinking about Métis people that is a bit uncomfortable. Métis people are a cultural construct of a group of people who created their own culture, which originated in the Red River. That culture is very specific, and, yes, it was a combination of different things, but it evolved to be something of its own.

As a Métis person, I want to put forward that being inclusive and acknowledging that Métis people have had a traumatic history is important, and using inclusive language would be helpful.

Senator McCallum: I have spoken to Métis people, and I met with the Manitoba Métis Federation this morning. I have spoken to them about this amendment; they agreed with it. I said to them, “First Nations women are the matriarch of the Métis Nation because without them, and without the people who came over — the French, and the British — there would have been no Métis Nation.”

How can you say, Senator LaBoucane-Benson, that there were three groups here, when the Europeans hadn’t come, and there were only the First Nations? First Nations includes all the tribes that were here. It’s the original peoples — it is just that we can’t come up with one term. In Cree, we call ourselves nêhiyawak, but they didn’t take that into consideration — it’s human beings.

That’s why it is very important. This is truth and reconciliation. The truth is there were only First Nations and Inuit peoples when people landed here. Can you comment on that?

Senator Dupuis: In both French and English, the word “immemorial” refers to a time in the distant past of human history, without necessarily giving a specific date for the arrival of the Inuit, the arrival of the Indians, the arrival of the Métis, according to the terms used in section 35 of the Constitution Act. These are not my preferred terms, but I’m using the ones we have. Is that how you understand this?

[English]

Senator LaBoucane-Benson: Senator, I don’t disagree with your rendition of history at all. I do disagree that in the preamble it says “Indigenous peoples.” It doesn’t say “Métis.”

Truly, every law in Canada is written in the language of the colonizer. “Indigenous” is not a Cree word. The Cree people don’t call themselves “Cree people.” The Métis people don’t necessarily call themselves “Métis people” in Michif, and yet here we are in the language of the colonizer, writing a bill that is talking about reconciliation.

I think the word “Indigenous” meets the standard, and is good enough in this bill at the beginning because it is inclusive. It doesn’t leave people out unintentionally, but I don’t disagree with the history that you are putting forward.

Hon. Marty Klyne: I want to say that I understand what Senator McCallum is saying; however, I do take the point with the Métis aspect of that. I think that Senator LaBoucane-Benson and Senator Dupuis covered some of the points I wanted to make, but I want to say that not all Indigenous peoples have been here since time immemorial. Métis are a post-contact Indigenous nation going back close to 400 years or more. They were born from the unions of European fur traders and First Nations women of the 17th century.

As we know, and as was mentioned, the constitutional definition of “Aboriginal people” — or “Indigenous people,” if you prefer — refers to First Nations, Métis and Inuit.

Thank you.