I have a couple of points.
In response to what Monsieur Fortin is raising, I would simply state that the notion of “systemic” is quite critical, and it's a term that's being used appropriately right now by many elected representatives and other individuals.
I would point everyone's consideration to the way Senator Murray Sinclair put it in the last Parliament when we were studying religious discrimination and systemic racism in the heritage committee. He said, “systemic racism is the racism that's left over after you get rid of the racists.” That's a very elegant way of talking about the fact that there is something very different in an individual act motivated by an individual who has mal-intent, versus rules and norms that pervade institutions.
I'll give a tangible example to everyone, because it went right through this justice committee, when we made a change to peremptory challenges of jurors. These are challenges where you can just look at the juror and decide you don't want that person on the jury, without having to motivate why; you've enabled a form of racism in the justice system that is systemic. By eliminating that in the last Parliament's Bill C-75, we tackled a manifestation of systemic racism.
I do think it's very critical, and I would echo the comments you heard from Mr. Fergus and from Mr. MacGregor.
With respect to Mr. Moore's point, I think it's our role to hear the witness testimony and then to gather from it and glean from it proposed amendments, which is exactly what we've done here. The terms “systemic” and “systemic discrimination” were used on a number of occasions by a number of witnesses, thus the formulation of the amendment that you see before you.
Thank you very much.