Thank you, Mr. Chair.
This a particularly interesting moment for me. I was the president of the National Congress of Italian Canadians in 1992 when we fought for this. At the time I remember meeting, together with the German community and the Chinese Canadian community, with ministers of Mr. Mulroney to ask that he do that in the House of Commons, in Parliament. We never accepted that as the official apology at the time that I was president of the National Congress of Italian Canadians, and we don't now. The Parliament of Canada is where it belongs, as it has been done for other organizations, such as the Japanese-Canadian community and others. I just want to set the record straight that I was very involved at the time in trying to get this resolved.
With respect to the comments, I will make a couple of comments to update this.
With respect to the concerns of my colleague on the opposite side that there will be disagreements, there are always disagreements in any community as they work things out. The National Congress of Italian Canadians is the umbrella organization for the Italian-Canadian community in Canada. It is not this government's role to decide who represents that community. It is decided by the community itself, through the membership. The people here will attest to that later this morning.
I think the honourable member's bill makes sense.
I wanted to clarify those things and put them on the table, because I understand the structure of that community very well, having volunteered in it.
I want to say to my honourable colleague Mr. Del Mastro that I can guarantee there was discrimination well into the seventies and eighties, having experienced it directly myself, as did many members of the community.
And thank you, Massimo, for bringing this forward. This is very important. However, I want to ask—because I assume this has been done—about the reason behind your tabling the bill. I presume it was to get the apology in Parliament, as you said, and to ensure there is a proper relationship with the leadership of the community in terms of the ongoing allocation and administration of funds, that there is a coordinated effort on the part of the community, and that the will of that community is respected, as opposed to going to smaller groups or anyone else. Am I correct in making that statement?