Yes. Thank you for asking, Cathay. Thank you for being here.

I was a transplant to Saskatchewan. I grew up in northern Alberta in a town called Whitecourt. I grew up in a very busy oil and gas area. I came to Saskatchewan to build cellphone towers for SaskTel and I met my wife. We started our family, and I began my journey into indigenous culture as an outsider.

I don't know much about my background. I'm a Germanic Russian immigrant. My grandparents were the first generation to come here, and my parents were first-generation Canadians. I didn't have a cultural pillar to stand on until I married my wife and had my children. Cathay was speaking about the welcoming nature of first nations communities. If you're part of their community, you're part of their community. They've accepted me and my family. I feel like I have somewhere to be now. Chief George Cote and all the elders on the reserve have invited me to ceremonies and to participate with my family.

I'm so glad that this has translated into the education system, as George has spoken about, and I now have friends in the community. Non-indigenous friends come to ask me questions about how to get in touch with leaders on the reserve and what's involved in doing certain things on reserve land. A lot of people have lots of questions, and these questions weren't being asked before.

None of these conversations were being had, and there were lots of barriers and blockades up that were mostly visual and traditional. Communities stayed separated and individuals stuck with their own race of people. It was unacceptable, but there was no mechanism to get everybody speaking. Now with all this dialogue, all this talk and all these different levels of government involved, and school divisions...and especially to watch the children at school enjoy the cultural space in the indigenous room.... My wife Lana is the indigenous community worker for the GSSD here, and she's put a lot of energy, along with her colleagues, into making that room a safe space for everyone.

As George said, we don't push it on people, but when people sign the waivers to allow their kids to come smudge in the indigenous room and you see non-indigenous kids coming for spiritual support through that, it gives me hope as a believer and as a father that the wondrous variety of people the Creator made all may be seeing each other now as human beings and as equals.

I think the advocacy that my daughter displayed was definitely through the hand of the Creator. Nothing is by mistake, and the divine nature of what's going on here shows that the Lord is in all things and guiding us all here today to do the right thing and show some unity and some respect and to realize that our mistakes of the past can be righted and that we need to do the best thing for the youth of Canada now. I believe that's what we're doing today.

I hope that answers what you asked of me.

Thank you very much.

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