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An indigenous MP says he’s being prevented from using his language in the House of Commons after the Speaker said in a ruling this week that the House doesn’t have the capacity to translate indigenous languages into English and French.

“Hearing this ruling from the Speaker was the most terrible thing I have heard in this chamber in the six years that I have been sitting in this place,” NDP indigenous affairs critic Romeo Saganash said in the House Tuesday.

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In his ruling, Speaker Geoff Regan said the House of Commons has “limited technical and physical capacity for interpretation,” and anyone who wants to speak in a language other than English or French should repeat their comments in one of the two official languages so that everyone can understand.

But Saganash doesn’t accept that the House has limited resources for translation. “I worked for 23 years at the United Nations in Geneva,” he told the National Post Wednesday. “They manage to translate I don’t know how many languages simultaneously. And this is Canada. It’s 2017 and we can’t do it here? That’s absurd.”