National Aboriginal Day
Friday June 21, 2002

    Mr. Bill Blaikie (Winnipeg—Transcona, NDP): Mr. Speaker, today the first day of summer is National Aboriginal Day, a day to celebrate aboriginal people, their communities, their cultures and their successes. It should also be a day to acknowledge their continuing need for justice, their continuing right to justice and their relationship with non-aboriginal Canada.

    On National Aboriginal Day let us dedicate ourselves to a new era for aboriginal people in Canada. Among other things the federal government should go the extra mile in settling land claims, ending its evasion of responsibility when it comes to residential school claims, and providing the resources necessary to help lift aboriginal Canadians out of the terrible social and economic conditions so many of them have to endure.

    We have a long way to go before we can celebrate a different day called national day of justice for aboriginal people.