Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'd like to express my appreciation for my colleague Mr. Iacono's comments about my passion for defending official languages. He confirmed that I had the privilege, as a member of Parliament, to stand up in the House of Commons on Tuesday to demonstrate my full commitment.
I was pleased to propose a motion to conduct a study on the educational continuum for Quebec's English and French-speaking communities. Unfortunately, on Tuesday, my colleague tabled a motion that we believe is far-fetched. I'll explain why later, Mr. Chair.
I think all stakeholders in Canada's official language minority communities are being shortchanged by the Liberals, once again.
At the end of the last session, in May and June, there were seven meetings that we couldn't hold, because a member had told witnesses that they were full of something that starts with “s”. I'll let you complete the sentence, Mr. Chair. We're not talking about “full of love”. I won't go any further. The MP had treated these people disrespectfully. Some witnesses no longer wanted to appear before the committee, because they didn't accept being treated that way.
There's a journalist in the room. It's important to remember that, at the end of the meeting, the MP said he wouldn't apologize. When he left the caucus on Wednesday, he paid lip service to the fact that if he had hurt people's feelings, he was sorry. I can't believe it.
What's important is how long it took for this MP to apologize. He appeared before a committee to read a text without necessarily respecting procedures. His colleagues probably put pressure on him, and I thank his colleagues for making him see reason.