Committee members want to limit the time allowed for questioning the minister who has authority to control what Statistics Canada does or doesn't publish. That's more what I'm suggesting. If Statistics Canada were completely independent, I'd agree with you and wouldn't add this to the debate, but it isn't independent of the minister, and it requires her approval in order to publish data.
We would've liked to have the time to question the Minister of Canadian Heritage, whose department is responsible for distributing funding. We would've liked to know why the department allocates funding to organizations that divide francophones and attempt to anglicize newcomers to Quebec.
Another question that the Minister of Official Languages should absolutely answer concerns the use of the first official language spoken indicator, which incidentally is based on mother tongue and the language spoken in the home. If it's racist to use those indicators, then the entire federal government is indirectly racist. However that's not what I'm saying, but that's what this gentleman was ultimately suggesting.
I can understand why the federal government is comfortable funding organizations that spread these kinds of ideas that undermine the integration of immigrants which is so vital for Quebec. And then it feels free to characterize Quebeckers as racist. Our efforts to integrate newcomers are being undermined. We'd like to have time to ask the minister why the Official Languages Act is designed to integrate newcomers in Canada's majority anglophone society. Our right to self-determination is being violated, and that right carries with it a right to secession under international law. It's easy to prove.
I'd like to be able to question the minister about this, about whether she thinks that attempts to defend the French language and Quebec constitute racism. We want time to ask her that question. As my colleague said, we have only six minutes to ask questions over a one-hour timeslot. After that, time for asking questions declines for both the Bloc Québécois and the NDP, and we have no right to speak in the final round. We can ask the minister very few questions in the course of one our. I think it's clearly inadequate.
For that reason, I invite all members to vote against this proposal. I'm reaching out to the NDP. The Liberal Party, which was in the minority, formed the majority when it joined forces with the NDP. Consequently, there's no other solution for us but to make every effort to have a debate now. I'm somewhat surprised because I thought the NDP wanted to defend social justice.
Thank you.