Honourable senators, as Canada celebrates National Aboriginal History Month and the contribution that indigenous peoples have made to our country, I rise today to pay tribute in particular to the indigenous women who have taken action in promoting equality and protecting indigenous culture and land. These include our friends and colleagues Senators Lovelace Nicholas and Lillian Dyck. They also include the late Mary Two-Axe Earley and Patricia Monture, Jeannette Corbiere Lavell, Sharon McIvor, Susan and Tammy Yantha, Dr. Lynn Gehl, Dr. Pam Palmater and Beatrice Hunter. Today I would like to in particular speak about Ms. Hunter.

Ms. Hunter is an Inuk woman, a daughter, mother, grandmother and land protector who was recently incarcerated in Her Majesty's Penitentiary in St. John's, Newfoundland for asserting her basic human and indigenous rights. Her crime? She engaged in a peaceful demonstration against the Muskrat Falls development project, a project that was begun without adequate consultation with the Inuit community that occupies the land. She harmed no one and was motivated only by love and a sense of responsibility to her family, her community and the land.

The federal government reaffirmed Canada's international commitment to adopting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, UNDRIP, without reservation.

UNDRIP recognizes that indigenous peoples have rights that constitute minimum standards for the survival, dignity and well-being of their communities, and that governments have the duty to consult regarding land use. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees Ms. Hunter and every other person in Canada freedom of expression and the freedom of peaceful assembly. Demonstrating is a basic civil right, not a crime justifying imprisonment.

Last week Senator Sinclair and I wrote an open letter to Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Dwight Ball expressing our extreme disappointment about the incarceration of Ms. Hunter. We were very concerned about the welfare of her and her family, and, like many other women, while in jail she was subjected to daily strip searches after being forcibly moved a thousand miles away from her family and support systems. Her story is a demonstration of how the Canadian judicial system continues to fail indigenous women.

With Canada's one hundred and fiftieth anniversary celebrations about to be upon us, this nation is moving toward a new era of recognizing and working to right historical wrongs and turning to reconciliation processes to renew the relationship between governments, Canadians and indigenous peoples.

As such, we encourage all governments to join in supporting Ms. Hunter and other indigenous women in their efforts in order that each of us contribute to remedying the wrongs of the past and the present and working toward a true future of reconciliation.

Thank you, meegwetch.