My first-year law professor was Professor Cotler, who happens to be my member of Parliament today. Coincidence happens. We learned a little about the Charter of Rights and Freedoms as students and we tried to apply that later in life.
I think freedom of conscience, freedom of belief, is something that you should have. I think our nation has evolved from the principle of labelling someone and associating someone with a label, and I don't think what someone is called is what we're here to discuss today. This bill deals with an apology. It deals with trying to bring closure to the past and moving on, things we've done in other communities.
Gentile Dieni, who was on our board, had fascist beliefs. I sat next to him at many meetings. He was still a good person who believed in family, who believed in work, who believed in many aspects of the Canadian community and the Canadian reality. He may have had a different political belief. I think we all respect other people's political beliefs; at least, I hope we do in this building. If we label someone a fascist or otherwise, we should remember that we've probably had communists walk into this building in the past and be greeted probably right in Parliament. I don't think putting labels on people is the object of what we're trying to do here.
We're trying to get an apology that is justly due to families that represent more than one million Canadians today. The labelling aspect, I think and hope, is something of the past. Someone's beliefs are someone's beliefs. I think that by passing this bill, we're going to capture the central issue, which is to bring an apology, get closure, and then deal in a dignified and proper manner with the issue of restitution. That's what this is about.