Mr. Speaker, the Liberal and Reform members of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage have openly declared a witch hunt. The representatives of Canadian unity are against sovereignist artists, like Marie Laberge, getting federal funding.
Obviously, ridicule has never killed anyone. Quebec sovereignists still continue to send their tax money to Ottawa. Each year, the federal government collects $30 billion from Quebecers. Do the members of the committee seriously think that the federal government could deny access to its programs to 50 per cent of Quebec's population? As Franco Nuovo put it so well in the Journal de Montréal , Canada Council grants are not given out to ``serve the allegiance and political stripe of artists, but to recognize and support talent and excellence in the arts world in Canada''.