Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
To begin with, I would like to say that we fully support our national hockey team, we hope that you will win the gold medal. We also have a great deal of respect for the members of Parliament who are asking questions. Once again, I would like to thank you for appearing here today, since you have shown a great deal of respect for the process.
I come from Acadia. I am an anglophone who has learned French, unfortunately, while playing hockey in the Moncton region. Our community of Moncton, New Brunswick, is bilingual. Perhaps it is too bad that the whole country is not like Moncton, since we live together and we are sensitive to questions of bilingualism.
Having said that, the great Acadian hockey stars that I know of—Gordie Dwyer, Oscar Gaudet, and Charlie Bourgeois—certainly didn't need a committee of Parliament to protect their rights on the ice. But it's good that structure has been put in place for tolerance.
I'm leading to a question in this regard to you, Mr. Nicholson, about tolerance on the ice at all levels.
When I think of Parliament, I don't think it's our role to choose the team. The best thing that's happened today is that members of the government have said they don't want a role in choosing the team. I fear that if they did, they'd all be Conservatives first and lousy hockey players second, so I'm glad we got that admission.
But seriously, you have suggested that there are programs in place to show greater sensibilization and greater respect on the ice. I think every community is grappling with the tendency towards emotion, which I think this whole spectacle is about, frankly. The facts will be borne out in another place at another time, but this is very emotional; you can see that. We have to have respect for the emotion that this brings, the division.
It's coincidental that I just came from the national prayer breakfast. Perhaps we all should have said a prayer for the healing of this rupture in our support for the national game.
Having said that, assure us, please, again and in more detail, how respect for girls and for female amateur hockey, respect for the authorities, the referees and linesmen, respect for racist comments that might be made or racist attitudes, and finally—what's germane to this issue—for linguistic harmony is being taken seriously by your group and how it trickles down to our community, Canada.