Look, the record speaks for itself. Successive Liberal governments refused apology, refused any form of commemorative funding. I count seven Liberal Prime Ministers who refused to do so over the course of 58 years.
You know what? I think we should focus on the many different activities that are available and on the many different funds and institutions that are available to commemorate these sad experiences. I think we should focus--all of us, together--on putting aside whatever disagreements may have existed. Rather than trying to score political points on this sad moment in our history, we should be focusing productively on how best to commemorate the events and to educate future generations about them.
I encourage members of this committee and all those interested to make applications through the community historical recognition program that's being very ably administered by our officials. I encourage them to contact Pier 21, the new national museum on immigration, or the Canadian human rights museum, both of which are creations of our government, to suggest other projects that could be used to commemorate.
I suggest they contact the Canadian Race Relations Foundation, created by the Mulroney government in 1990 precisely as part of the legacy of wartime internment experiences. I suggest they work with the national foundation on projects to move forward.
The community organizations said that they did not expect a second apology. They signed off on that in 2005. An apology was made by Prime Minister Mulroney. We have made $5 million of funding available. There's the $25 million endowment with the Canadian Race Relations Foundation. There's Pier 21. There's the museum of human rights.
All of those worthwhile initiatives are to commemorate periods of historical injustice in Canada's past--not exclusively Italian Canadian internment, but that is one of those many experiences. I think we could all productively work together on that, going forward.