I find the Liberals' defence, to the effect that we are attacking Franco-Ontarians, unacceptable. They continually try to turn francophone minorities outside Quebec against the Quebec minority, which is also a minority within Canada. It represents 90% of francophones in Canada.
We have a right to defend French in Quebec. We thought things would change with the adoption of the official languages bill, but that's not what we're seeing. We'd like to put a stop to these efforts to deploy francophone and Acadian communities against Quebec. We want that to end. The member's comments were truly contemptible. I find them unacceptable and believe that he has discredited himself by making them.
Mr. Lacroix was appearing before the committee for the third time. What he presented was therefore nothing new. If the members had listened when people were talking about Quebec, they might not have reacted as they did, unless it had been deliberate.
I find that the entire defence follows the same pattern, which is to use bullying and to keep us from talking about the status of French in Quebec.
Ultimately, I agree with Mr. Serré's amendment, but only because I want to see an end to the systematic obstruction so that we can discuss the fundamental issue, which is the underfunding of post-secondary institutions, by which I mean colleges, CEGEPs and universities both outside Quebec and in Quebec.