Thank you.
Does anyone else wish to speak? No. I would therefore like to make a few comments.
I thank all the members for their comments. I respect all of you and I also respect what you said, whether in support of me or not. However, I must try to explain in my own words why I made this decision and why I think as I do. I'm going to take a few minutes to do that. Some things were said about me that were hurtful. Some members made some statements without knowing all the facts, in my opinion.
For those of you who don't know, obviously, with a name like Guy Lauzon, I'm a francophone. I was born of two francophone parents. My mother, when she moved to Ontario, could not speak a word of English. I was born in a Scottish community called St. Andrews West, and we were the only French family in that village; they were all Scottish settlers and United Empire Loyalists. I went to school in English, my friends were English, and we spoke English in the house because my mother had to learn to speak English, and used to say,
"Talk to me in English: I have to learn how to speak it."
When people say that I don't support minority communities, I'm going to look each and every one of you in the eye and I'm going to say, you don't know what you're talking about: I lived it; I lived what it is.
Finally, when I was elected three years ago and became a member, I was asked by the leader of the official opposition at that time to sit on the committee. It was my first exposure to official languages.
That is when I renewed my contact with my roots.
I finally discovered who I was and where I came from: I was a francophone. I used to be called Guy Lawson.
It is true: I was not Guy Lauzon, I was Guy Lawson.
I know what it is, and I take great offence when you people, anyone, mentions that I don't have the official languages committee at heart. I believe in this committee more strongly than any one of you can possibly believe. I mean that from the bottom of my heart.
Yes, I made a decision, and I'll tell you why I made a decision. We made a decision here as a committee, about three weeks ago, every one of us—every one of us—and the official languages in this country lost because of our decision. We got Hockey Canada to come here, and we dealt with something that in my mind, as chairman, I didn't agree with, but I allowed it to happen. Okay? And we got the results.
I've heard from some of you around this table and I've heard from some of your colleagues about what the public out there thought, how we went against what we were trying to do to promote official languages.
Mr. Godin, you accused me, or you said that at one time I said I would have a hard time explaining to my constituents about the money we were spending, a quarter of a million dollars to go on a—If you recall, I was the person who went to the Liaison Committee and lobbied very, very hard when they wanted to refuse it. And you were there.