I'll quote him again. They were here 48 hours ago: “We chose to continue the negotiations with the government, with Minister Bev Oda, with Minister Kenney, only to be insulted, only to be put aside when they came up with this program which had never been discussed, had never been approved by anyone, with people on this consultative committee.”
That was a double insult to the Italian community.
There is a rift between your government and the main groups representing the Italian community because they feel insulted, and doubly so. I have here a letter addressed to you from Mr. Ciaccia. It reads as follows:
“Your plan of action announced on March 21...under the community historical reparation plan has no legitimacy and simply does not make any sense.”
He goes on to say: “For all of the above we submit that bypassing the legitimate community organizations who have been negotiating with the government in good faith is simply misguided and unacceptable.”
You never replied to that letter. Why?