It is not the bill that divides the community, it is the Community Historical Recognition Program which has caused such a rift within the community, because people are unaware of its existence.
Two senators came to visit Quebec City two weeks ago. At that meeting, no one was aware of the existence of such a program. Is it a program that was designed strictly for Toronto? We are wondering.
This program makes no sense because the members appointed to the representative committees in no way represent the Italian Canadian community. Not at all! If you look at the members' resumés, you can see that they were never involved in the cases of people interned during the Second World War.
I do not know how the minister operates nor why he decided to shut out the organizations that have represented the community for the last 35 years, and even up to 100 years in some cases.
How did he decide to put aside these organizations and appoint people who are in absolutely no way representative?