Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I have two things to say.
First, I heard what my colleague Mr. Beaulieu had to say, and I must say that we Quebeckers are all Quebeckers on an equal footing, whether our mother tongue is English, French or some other language. No political party or individual has the right to speak on behalf of Quebec as a whole. Quebec, like all societies, is made up of people who have different points of view, and we all have the right to express these points of view without being attacked as anti-Quebeckers. That's unacceptable.
Number two, I appreciate very much what my friend Ms. Ashton said. I just want to correct a couple of things.
The last three meetings.... This amendment came up only at the end of the last meeting. For the first couple of meetings, the Liberals on the committee were concerned about amendments coming from other parties, Conservative and Bloc Québécois amendments, that would have reduced the rights of minority language communities. We weren't trying to change the bill.
There are two references in the Official Languages Act and the proposed Bill C-13 that include references to the Charter of the French Language. The bill was tabled before Bill 96 became law and changed the Charter of the French Language from what was first adopted in 1977 to what is there now. The pre-emptive use of the notwithstanding clause was deeply troubling to many people, and it caused a change in the position of many people about whether it was appropriate to reference that bill.
I'm not trying to hold up the committee. I'm only trying to say that this is, as you know, very important to the people I represent, and I think it's important to all who share our vision of Canada, because the pre-emptive use of the notwithstanding clause is not acceptable. Whether it was right or wrong, however we got here, in the end result right now we are where we are, and this reference shouldn't be in the bill. I just plead with my colleague, who I know is incredibly intelligent, to consider that.
Thank you.