Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you very much for your presentation, Dr. Larocque. You did a great job of walking us through the history to give us some background. I have two points I want to raise.
Everyone seems uncomfortable with the decision handed down by Justice Gascon, whose position seems to be that if something isn't specified in the act, it doesn't have to be done. That runs counter to everything that's come out of the courts over the past century, especially at the Supreme Court. The conclusions or approach of that court are almost always more liberal. Its position is that even if something isn't specified, it should be done by default, because that's probably what the legislator intended at the time but wasn't sure about.
However, Justice Gascon opted for a more restrained interpretation. Everyone was disappointed, but not you, and I find that interesting. You said there was an opportunity to be seized, because in your view, the fact that the judge found the definition of “positive measure” too vague means that this definition is broad enough to give the federal government plenty of discretion in choosing such measures.
I'd like us to spend a few minutes on that issue.