My question is for the Government Representative in the Senate. Senator Harder, over a month ago, following the publication of an article in La Presse, I informed you that certain inmates in Quebec prisons are declaring themselves to be Indigenous. Some of those inmates include Hells Angels leaders, who may be from Ste-Catherine Street in Montreal or from Quebec, but they definitely never lived on reserve. These inmates are benefiting from rehabilitation programs designed specifically for Indigenous offenders, while Indigenous offenders are being turned away because there is no space available.

One Indigenous man who was interviewed by La Presse said that he had attended healing circles where 15 of the 18 participants were not Indigenous.

In the past month, have you had the opportunity to find out more about this unacceptable situation from Correctional Service Canada? If so, did CSC promise to remedy this situation, as requested by Ghislain Picard, Chief of the Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador?

Senator Harder, considering the overrepresentation of Indigenous people in the Canadian prison system and knowing that there are programs designed specifically for their community, will you commit to contacting Chief Ghislain Picard in order to ensure that his intervention request is dealt with by the Minister of Public Safety in a timely manner and to ensure that this completely unjustified practice is no longer tolerated?