Thank you.

My name is Crystal. Crystal Semaganis nitsikahson. I am leader of the Ghost Warrior Society. We are not an elitist organization. We are a grassroots organization made up entirely of volunteers who are Métis, first nations and Inuit from across this country and the United States. Because we are grassroots, we have opened up our lines to hear from our people on first nations, Métis and Inuit identity fraud and how it impacts us.

On February 28, 2014, my mother gave testimony at the Indian residential school trials in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. On March 3, 2014, she died. I believe it was from having to relive that kind of trauma. The records were there. My mother was taken to St. Alban’s Indian Residential School in Prince Albert and was there for seven straight years. She never left. Those records are there. However, the burden of proof is seriously misplaced in this country.

Why is it that the colonials insisted that my mother relive her trauma, with all these additional checks and balances, to award her an Indian residential school settlement? Contrast that with settlers who are opportunistic. You've seen Michelle Latimer succeed at claiming to be indigenous, yet all they required her to do was check a box to access millions—billions—of dollars.

At the Ghost Warrior Society, we have long been immersed in the effects of pretendianism on our communities and our everyday lives. There is serious disparity. This is something that I have seen as a sixties scoop survivor. I have seen how this society works for settlers who live in this country. Then I see how it does not work for people like me. We are unleashed upon society, expecting to have rights and privileges equal to those of other Canadian citizens, when that is not true for us. There is considerable disparity.

Truth and reconciliation sought to mitigate those colonial harms and colonial violence when it comes to Indian residential schools, sixties scoop survivors and people who have been displaced through really bad child welfare programs. We recently saw the story of the Inuit receiving an apology for the shooting of their sled dogs. Colonial harms and the colonial violence visited upon first nations, Métis and Inuit people is what truth and reconciliation is all about. It is not about checking a box. It is not about self-identification.

When you have colonial interference in the lives of first nations, Métis and Inuit, and then you get the exploitation that comes from false claims of indigenous identity, then here we are. Here we are at the standing committee. Here we are trying to address this. I thank all governments for coming together in this room to finally address it. However, from my perspective at the grassroots, knowing the actual impacts it has on my people, it's like Mother Earth is on fire and here we are with a teaspoon of water to try to quell this raging inferno that is pretendianism. It's eating up housing. It's eating up economic development opportunities. We have the exploitation of Gladue sentencing in the justice system. It is far-reaching. It goes beyond procurement, but procurement is where we can see the actual dollar signs in terms of how impactful and how exploitative the false claims of first nations, Métis and Inuit identity have been.

There have to be checks and balances. You cannot impose checks and balances on first nations, Métis and Inuit people to define who we are and then just allow self-identification or the self-declaration of indigenous identity that will allow these people to enter into contracts and some very suspect partnerships with indigenous people.

On a final note, I would like to reiterate the acronym CPAIN, which stands for corporations posing as indigenous nations. In our volunteer work over the past three or so years, we have tracked over 300 fraudulent corporations that exist in Canada that seek to present the fact that they are indigenous when in fact they are not. They're essentially hobby clubs. However, they enjoy unfettered access to indigenous resources.

The bulk of pretendianism is a settler identification problem. Those are the words of my colleague Trevino Brings Plenty.

I know my time is up, so I'm just going to leave it there.

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