Mr. Speaker, I have been listening very intently to the speeches regarding Bill C-64. I am also finding myself agreeing not with the bill but with a lot of statements, particularly from the last speaker on the need to work on equality. Equality is essential. We want that. Everybody in Canada wants that.
I find it a little discouraging, however, when we come to talking about wanting equality. We want all to be Canadians. We want equality. That is what everybody wants.
Now we come to the time when we will have to ask the questions that may differentiate between equality and non-equality. That goes back to something talked about during the election. It was talked about by a lot of people who did not like hyphenated Canadians. They thought how great it would be if we could only come to the day when we can be Canadians and we do not have to be French-Canadian, Japanese-Canadian, aboriginal-Canadian, Colorado-Canadian, Irish-Canadian or whatever. They would really like
to see that disappear. That message was loud and clear. Every member in the House has heard that.
I think people would agree that is what we would like to see. All of a sudden we see a piece of legislation coming out prior to a census asking "what is your race?" I have already talked to a lot of people who are concerned about that. They wonder what will happen if they write Canadian. These people could write hyphenated Canadian because they are not the same as me.
People in my riding of a different ethic background are asking what they are supposed to write. A good friend of mine, a sheet metalist, asked: "Am I supposed to write African-Canadian because I am black?" He refuses to do that because he was born a Canadian. He said he will write Canadian and so will his kids. I admire that kind of attitude. There is a perfect example of an individual who would like to work toward being considered equal. Government legislation is requiring him to declare otherwise.
My colleague said the legislation is stupid. That is why it is stupid. It is forcing a lot of people to declare they are not Canadian because of a hyphen. They do not want to do that.
A lot of business people have told me they have practised this kind of legislation all their lives. The last thing they want to be is discriminatory against anyone. Everybody in the House can go to their ridings and talk to entrepreneurs of all kinds who have practised this kind of thing.
Of the 30 years I have been in Canada, 20 were spent in a supervisory position in which I had to hire people. On a number of occasions we made certain we did not mistreat anyone on the basis of gender, race, et cetera.
I recall several teachers who came from all walks of life I was involved in hiring who were excellent. It was long enough ago that we did not think about colour. We did not think about anything but their qualifications and their ability to perform. Now we are to force those same businesses that have those hiring practices to take into consideration colour, race and gender.
Here we go again. There are a lot of entrepreneurs out there who are up to their eyebrows in taxes and are having one heck of a time making ends meet. The biggest reason is government got into everything imaginable and interfered constantly with all the different regulations. Businesses have been made to become tax collectors through GST and other forms of taxes, which causes business to add costs and hire people to do the work for the government. Now we are to present them with more legislation.
I think all entrepreneurs all across the country of all races are just about fed up. They are liable to say to my friends across the way: "You blew it. What we do not need is more government involvement. We are grown individuals. We are intelligent. We are Canadian. We will manage our own affairs, thank you. Stay out, butt out, and get out of our lives".
No, for 30 years I seen that the government knows better. The government knows what is good for Canadians, so it has to make sure it gets in there, gets involved and starts forcing things to happen that have probably been happening all along. If they have not been happening we have a mechanism to make certain that people are punished when they do break the law by being discriminatory. We have that. It is called the Canadian Human Rights Commission. No, the government knows better.
This has been the practice for how long? Remember the metric system? Not many people wanted it, but the government gave it to them whether they wanted it or not. Remember the language law? A whole pile of people did not want it, but the government gave it to them whether they wanted it or not.
Let us go back to just recently. Consider the GST. It could not have been more obvious. People did not want it, but we have it.