Thank you, Mr. Chair. It's good to see you here again this evening, and all the committee members.
The comments made this evening are a bit disturbing. People are saying that we, as a government, aren't following the rules. Mr. Beaulieu referred to a number of us earlier. However, we have all clearly and publicly stated that Mr. Drouin made a mistake. I would like to remind the committee members and the public that Mr. Drouin has apologized. Mr. Beaulieu's interpretation of what happened isn't entirely accurate. Even before Mr. Drouin apologized here to the committee, he apologized publicly. When Mr. Drouin was sitting here on Thursday morning, the opposition members wouldn't even let him speak. They raised a point of order to prevent him from apologizing. Clearly, the opposition is playing politics with this matter.
It's funny to hear Mr. Godin say that we should move on to more important things. We couldn't agree more. We've been discussing this topic for three meetings now. We have studies to conduct on immigration; on the decline of French in Quebec and across Canada; on the French‑language education continuum at the primary and secondary levels; and on the funding of post‑secondary institutions, a topic that we were in the process of studying. We even met with the minister. The opposition members didn't ask him any questions. They just asked about Mr. Drouin, and then immediately moved a motion.
I think that people are somewhat loose with the truth. Mr. Drouin apologized. As Mr. Beaulieu pointed out, I said that it was undoubtedly a small sin. He made a mistake. Does he need absolution from the Pope? Honestly, that makes no sense. I don't know whether he'll go to confession, but he has apologized.
We could spend a long time here talking about comments made by certain opposition members. There are a number of examples, but I could point out what Rachael Thomas said to Minister St‑Onge in a committee.