Document Information

Date: 1980-12-02
By: Canada (Parliament)
Citation: Canada, Senate Debates, 32nd Parl, 1st Sess, 1980 at 1331.
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SENATE DEBATES — December 2, 1980

[Page 1331]

THE CONSTITUTION

SPECIAL JOINT COMMITTEE—ALLEGED REFUSAL OF MEMBERS TO MEET NON-STATUS INDIAN CONSTITUENTS

Hon. Daniel Riley: I should like to ask a question of the Leader of the Government to instruct members of the Special Joint Committee on the Constitution not to grant interviews to non-status Indians who seek to meet with their elected representatives sitting on the committee?

Hon. Raymond J. Perrault (Leader of the Government): Honourable senators, I have no information, or even any intimation, that any such suggestion has been made or any such instructions have been issued.

Hon. Jacques Flynn (Leader of the Opposition): I suppose the question refers only to members of the committee who are of the government political allegiance, because I am quite sure that no instructions like that have been given to members of the other parties sitting on the committee.

Senator Riley: I did not refer to members of the opposition. I asked the Leader of the Government in the Senate if that was government policy, because I am informed that non-status Indians with whom I met today—young people and mostly women—were refused the opportunity to meet their elected representatives. Quite apart from the Senate, I think an elected representative is bound to meet with his constituents, whether they be natives, black, white, Catholic, Protestant or anything else, and I deplore this attitude.