Mr. Speaker, I rise to honour the memory of the Acadian activist Jackie Vautour, who passed away on February 7 at the age of 92.
Jackie Vautour spent his entire life fighting on behalf of the 228 families whose land was expropriated by Ottawa in 1969 to create Kouchibouguac National Park. What the federal government did to those Acadian families warrants an apology, at the very least. Depriving poor fishers and farmers of their fishing rights, their land and their homes was inhuman.
Pierre Elliott Trudeau and his minister responsible for national parks, Jean Chrétien, drove thousands of people from their homes in the 1960s and 1970s.
Fortunately, the federal government no longer has the right to expropriate land from families to create parks, and that is thanks to people like Jackie Vautour, who stood up for themselves.
On behalf of the Bloc Québécois, I offer our deepest condolences to his loved ones, especially his wife, Yvonne.