Mr. Speaker, the anniversary of the death of Louis Riel was yesterday. I know I speak on behalf of my colleague, the hon. member for Churchill River in Saskatchewan, who is Metis, and the rest of the New Democratic caucus when I call upon the government to correct horrible historic injustices.
Now is the time to officially exonerate Louis Riel and with it the dark cloud that hangs over the federal government. Now is the time to go beyond recognizing Riel as a founder of Manitoba and officially recognize him as a Father of Confederation.
The refusal of the federal government to acknowledge that the Metis fall under subsection 91(24) of the constitution is one of the worst forms of official federal discrimination according to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.
The anniversary of the death of Louis Riel would be a very fitting time to correct these injustices.