Granted, I'll say this of Pearson: he was in a minority government situation at the time. So perhaps the reason he didn't bring something forward at that time was because he realized that introducing a bill like that at a time of minority government probably wasn't a good thing. So I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.
But I note that the Liberals won a sweeping majority in 1968, I think, with Mr. Trudeau. And I stand to be corrected if the member opposite can show me otherwise, and I'll apologize to him, but I searched--I went to the library, and I searched some more--and I asked some relatives who were big fans at the time and asked if there was anything that Trudeau had done, and they said no, we don't recall. And the library said no, there was nothing there.
I asked then, were there any members of Parliament from that time period who apologized to Italian Canadians or put forward a bill or who reached out, or maybe there was a motion. I couldn't find it, Mr. Chair, I have to tell you.
I then went forward through the entire Trudeau era and couldn't find it. Ironically enough, I didn't find it during the short Clark administration either. The couple of months Mr. Turner was in office, I didn't find anything there.
It wasn't actually until Brian Mulroney came to office that I was able to source anything with respect to acknowledging how important the Italian-Canadian community was to Canada, and how what was done to the Italian-Canadian community was regrettable. And the Prime Minister at the time, as I mentioned earlier--just to continue on the point of order--gave all of the important elements of an apology, as we discussed in the last meeting.
I then went forward, after Prime Minister Mulroney, into the.... We know, and I read it into the record last time, Mr. Trudeau's vehement opposition to any form of an apology.
But I then went forward into the Chrétien era, because Mr. Chrétien was a very successful prime minister. I think the Liberals, with Chrétien and Martin, had four mandates, and three of them were significant majority governments where a bill like this could have been introduced by a private member, by the government, or through a motion. I still could not find anything. And again, if the member opposite.... I know he was elected since 2000.