Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for Winnipeg St. James for his question.
First, the hon. member would certainly do well to reread my speech tomorrow in Hansard , for I never claimed that we were victims. Quebec has gone far beyond that in its historical development. Quebec is not a victim, it is simply a people.
I did say that the ball is now in the federalist court-I hope he is listening in the foyer-the ball is in the federalist court, but the federalists should not keep the ball to themselves.
That being said, I would like to get back to his statement that separatists, as he calls them, were in disagreement with the Meech Lake accord and with the Charlottetown accord. First, it has to be said that if he goes over the history of this again and if he tries to remember the events that led up to the Meech Lake accord, he will realize that there are people who are sovereignists today who, at the time, were in favour of Meech.
The Leader of the Opposition is a fitting example. He was in favour of the Meech Lake accord. The hon. Leader of the Opposition was in favour of Meech.
The Meech Lake accord, which represented the most minimal conditions Quebec had ever put forward, having been rejected, how could we, the sovereignists, accept less that Meech with the Charlottetown accord?
Of course, to answer the hon. member's question, all of the sovereignists were against Charlottetown.