Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. We appreciate being given the time to speak to you today.
My name is Glen Hare. I'm from the M’Chigeeng First Nation. That's on God's country, Manitoulin Island. I'm also a former chief of our community--for 14 consecutive years--and I've had three terms as councillor. Now I'm the deputy grand chief. We're halfway through our three-year mandate at the union.
We're here to applaud and support the historic bill that's before us. We do have some recommendations, and we're hoping it is taken that we are here to enhance and strengthen it, and that everything is taken positively.
I'll go right to the recommendations.
The first one we have is that subclause 6(2) of Bill C-30 be amended to include lay people and legally trained persons with subject matter expertise as well as superior court judges in forming the membership of the Specific Claims Tribunal. This makeup has the potential to be more representative of our first nation communities, given that there are not many first nations superior court judges.