Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Pacetti, I would like to thank you for your presentation, as well as for having risen in the House to table the bill. I lived for many years on Langelier Boulevard, not far in fact from Mr. Gagliano. I am very familiar with the construction sector in Saint-Léonard. As a carpenter, I worked for almost everyone there, including Mayori, Naskali and Pavage Del Papa et Fils, and so on.
The Italian community was ostracized because of what happened during the war. In fact, Italy was at war against Canada and its allies. Here at home, that was invoked to muzzle Italian Canadians. People who did not participate in the fighting, did not send money back to Italy and who were not combatants were thrown into jail without any explanation. They were jailed so that the community would keep a low profile.
At the previous committee meeting, I drew a parallel, which happened to be reported by some newspapers. I would like to go over that again today. Quebec experienced the same situation when the War Measures Act was imposed. Some 400 Quebeckers were jailed without any reason. They were not members of the FLQ and had never been accused or taken to court. The government took advantage of the fact that some groups were committing reprehensible acts in order to silence Quebeckers. However, they locked up the wrong people. The same thing happened with the Italian community.
My parallel is as follows. If people in my riding ask me for my opinion—and one person has asked so far—I would say that I agree that the injustices done to the Italian community should be recognized. I agree that compensation in one form or another should be offered, knowing that such restitution will never redress all the injustices that the community suffered.
If people in my riding ask me why Quebeckers are compensating the Italian community, while Quebeckers who were locked up will never be compensated and never receive a statement of apology in the House, what should I tell them? That is not an easy question to answer.