Mr. Speaker, regarding this issue, the Bloc deplores the government's simplistic position and its extravagant if not biased speeches.
The government has always stressed the negative repercussions of the strike and its real economic impact, of which we all are aware, and really went overboard on the issue. It kept on repeating that factories were closing everywhere in Canada, coast to coast, particularly in Quebec, since the Bloc Quebecois was the government's main opponent in the House on the issue. Very few economic sectors in Quebec were spared the threat of imminent closures, yet nothing of the sort actually happened.
The government tried to terrorize and brainwash people by exaggerating the economic consequences. I do not want to minimize the consequences, but I think that a government dealing with such an extensive labour dispute, like the one currently affecting the country, should be more reserved, impartial and objective. The government should not upset people; it should reassure them while trying to find a solution. The government did the opposite. We were witness to an incredible demagogic offensive, we were bombarded with a slew of disastrous predictions, which did not turn out to be accurate.
We must nevertheless acknowledge that considerable economic interests and jobs are at stake, not only in the sector directly affected, but also in the sectors spinning off from it.
We are not oblivious to the economic impact of the strike. We proved this by proposing to the government, as early as last Monday, a classic solution of the sort normally used to settle this kind of dispute.
With such an important issue, it is not only necessary to look at the economic impact, but also to be nuanced. So, this is an example of the kind of issue debated in the Parliament of Canada where we need to examine all facets, if we are to debate it wisely and carefully, in the interest of all.
One of them is also, of course, that there are important issues and interests at stake that immediately call into question Canadian democracy, Quebec democracy and parliamentary democracy, and this has been forgotten in the debate.
What we in the Bloc Quebecois wanted to do was to situate the dispute, and the resolution mechanism, in the perspective of a balance to be achieved between the right to negotiate and peace on the labour front, for all of this was at stake. It is not true that because a strike has broken out that an illegal act has been committed. It is not true that because a strike has broken out that it is necessary to push the panic button, to bring out the big guns.
And it is not true that because a strike has broken out that the opposition can be prevented from speaking about it in this House. Events have taken a very strange turn this week.
The Bloc has been vilified for wanting to recognize rights that exist in law, in legislation passed not by a foreign Parliament, but by the Parliament of Canada, legislation that provides for the right to strike, that recognizes the existence in Canada of this fundamental democratic right.