It's not complicated: it started in the East and moved west. We all agree on that.
Mr. Lemieux also mentioned that the Standing Committee on Official Languages has been around for 25 years and never before travelled. This was one of the reasons for our trip: we wanted to meet with people in their communities so that they felt at home, in their municipality, to talk about their problems. When we invite you to come to Ottawa, to Parliament, you wonder who we are. We wanted to come to you to meet with local organizations at the same time. This is what we will be doing this afternoon, and it will be very interesting.
There is another topic I want to mention that concerns me. Mr. Johnson raised it. Two aspects were also mentioned and have not been addressed to any great extent. They were mentioned in Mr. Murphy's question on court challenges.
Mr. Lemieux told you not to worry, because they support you, they are here, they recognize the overall issue.
In fact, Quebec has been recognized as a nation. And perhaps, one day, Yvon Godin will introduce a motion in the House of Commons asking that Acadians or francophones in Canada be recognized as a nation; you never know.
Nevertheless, there is concern, although they are telling you not to worry because they support you. In fact, Quebec, with its population of six million, is better able to defend itself than we francophones outside Quebec are. This is a term that I don't like using, but we are francophones outside Quebec in Canada.
In fact Quebec has a bigger population. That said, we are concerned about losing the Court Challenges Program, thanks to which the Montfort Hospital and French schools in British Columbia were able to win their cases. You said it earlier. The same thing happened. Often, it's a matter of making the province recognize our rights. This is what it is about. We have been able to do this thanks to the Court Challenges Program.
They are telling you that they support you, but they are taking this tool away from you. This is hard. Where is the support? I also remember that the current government, when it was in the opposition, had said that we could copy the Belgian system: Quebec would take care of the francophones, and the federal government would take care of the rest of Canada. Those words are cause for concern. These are their words. We could refer to the archives and make them public. Now, this concerns me.
I would like to have your opinion on this.