Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. I, too, was somewhat surprised by the statement from the member for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce—Lachine, a parliamentarian whom I respect. She is a very forward-thinking woman who has waged very courageous battles in the past, but I think that she was wrong in her assessment of the dynamics between francophones and anglophones.
Now is the time to bring this up, because the television series recounting the career of René Lévesque has been running on Radio-Canada for the past two weeks. It is important to know that on the very day the Parti québécois was created, René Lévesque battled within that emerging movement to ensure historical recognition, long-lasting recognition, of what he called Quebec’s founding minority, and that tradition continued with Jacques Parizeau. Remember that in the 1995 draft legislation, which was mailed to every household in Quebec, we recognized the historical rights of the anglophone community.
To the MacDonalds, the Browns and the Smiths who worked alongside francophones to build Quebec, we say that they have an historical place from kindergarten to university, that in every aspect of public life, this is their home and it would be impossible to imagine Quebec without them. That was the message conveyed by René Lévesque and Jacques Parizeau, and that is the message conveyed by Pauline Marois and the sovereigntist movement. That is the reason why there is civil rest in Quebec.