Hon. Dennis Glen Patterson: Honourable senators, my question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate. Senator Gold, as you know, a large concern raised during our debate in the last Parliament on Bill C-15, which focused on the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, was the issue of consultation. Particularly, sitting chiefs representing historical treaty nations raised the issue of rushed, inadequate or, in some cases, non-existent consultation during the drafting of Bill C-15. As a result of these clear deficiencies in consultation, rights holders from various parts of the country denounced and/or outright rejected Bill C-15. Ministers Lametti and Bennett were then quite explicit in their promise to be inclusive when consulting Indigenous peoples on the creation of the action plan and vowed to improve upon the terrible process used to develop Bill C-15 going forward.

Senator Gold, I’d like to ask you: What efforts have been made by the Department of Justice and/or the Department of Crown-Indigenous Relations to engage meaningfully with those rights holders who raised these concerns? These rights holders include, but are not limited to, Treaty 6, Treaty 7 and Treaty 8, the Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians, Manitoba Keewatinowi and the Mohawk Council of Kahnawà:ke.

Senator Patterson: Senator Gold, perhaps I should have said, “the imperfect process of consultations.” However, in discussing the issue of consultation on Bill C-15, we also heard that grassroots organizations such as Idle No More, Defenders of the Land and Truth Before Reconciliation felt cut out of the conversation completely. I’d like to ask if efforts have been made to engage with these and other grassroots organizations to date.