Mr. Speaker, on November 24, I put a question to the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs. I asked him whether the interim report he transmitted to the Prime Minister on behalf of this committee included the option of putting before the House a simple resolution on the distinct society concept and whether that option was the one favoured by his committee.
As usual, the minister evaded the issue, saying it was not up to him to reveal the results of the work of this committee and that later on, at the appropriate time, the opposition would see whether that was the Liberal government's option.
We asked this question because we wanted to warn the government against proposing to the House a simple resolution to recognize Quebec as a distinct society within Canada. We simply wanted to tell the Liberal government that it was useless, that it was an entirely symbolic gesture that would in any case fail to satisfy Quebec because it did not go far enough and would be rejected by English Canada because it would involve too many changes, according to them.
We wanted to say this because in Quebec, the distinct society issue was raised in the Liberal Party's platform around 1984 or 1985. Robert Bourassa, who was subtle in his approach, had found this expression and used it as a synonym of the concept of the Quebec people, to make it palatable to English Canada. Basically, Mr. Bourassa thought that Quebecers would agree, saying that it was in fact a synonym of the Quebec people and that English Canada would agree in the belief that it meant nothing. History has shown that English Canada was right.
At one point the concept surfaced in the Meech Lake accord. It has often been said that this particular concept was more important than the one in the federal government's current proposal, the claim being that it would affect the way the Constitution was interpreted and that the concept of distinct society in the Meech Lake accord would even take precedence over the charter of rights and freedoms.
This was far from obvious. Eminent legal experts in English Canada, including Professor Peter W. Hogg at York University, claimed the opposite was true, and said quite clearly: "The new section does not take precedence over the charter of rights and freedoms. In fact, as a straightforward interpretative clause, it is subject to the charter".
Had the Meech Lake accord been accepted in its day, we would have found ourselves again before the Supreme Court, which would-contrary to what Premier Bourassa said-again have concluded that the agreement Quebec had signed in good faith did not take precedence over a fundamental element of the Constitution, namely the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Obviously we have nothing against a constitution's containing sections aimed at defending citizens' rights, but nevertheless the Charter of Rights and Freedoms has been useful to those wishing to block the aspirations of Quebec, to restrict its development culturally and linguistically.
That charter has helped these people, whom I could almost describe as malevolent, to hobble the development of Quebec and to make it so that today Quebec has no other solution than to promptly and firmly reject any notion of a distinct society and to come up with the proposition that was ours during the last referendum, which is to state loud and clear that Quebec is not a distinct society but a people, period.