My remarks will be quite short. There is no point in going on and on about it, since there are other ways of doing things.
Did you know that we are the only parliamentary committee whose existence is prescribed by law? All the other committees are agreed on by the parties.
Our responsibility is to be the watchdogs of Canada's official languages.
Just because Canadians think that we are out to lunch, we are not going to start saying that it's better not to do something because we are going to look bad. When we asked for francophone schools in British Columbia, I can tell you that francophones looked bad. When we asked to have French schools on Prince Edward Island, I can tell you that it looked bad. When we asked for francophone schools in Nova Scotia, it looked bad. If we had listened to public opinion, we would have never had schools. When we asked to have francophone schools in Ontario, it looked bad. If we had listened to public opinion, we would have never had any. Are we here to look good or bad, or are we here to ensure that the two official languages are respected?
I will follow my colleague Mr. Harris in saying that the sole purpose of this motion is to figure out what happened. Could we have done things differently? Once that gets to Parliament, they will have to agree or disagree with it. I will leave it at that.