When Mr. Cloutier asked to see his file, what did he find? First, he found a file which is 1,500 pages thick.
Just imagine: fifteen hundred pages on a single individual who never ran into any trouble with the law. Moreover, 1,000 of these pages are censored. This is the work of institutions which monitor the activity of sovereignists who want to act in full compliance with the democratic process. We all remember the case of an individual arrested in 1970, and his wife too. I am referring to Mr. Gérald Godin and Mrs. Pauline Julien. We all know about the illegal and criminal activities of Mr. Godin: he was a member of Quebec's National Assembly, and a Quebec minister for some ten years.
There is no doubt that this suspicious individual was under close surveillance by our federal institutions. Mr. Godin was illegally imprisoned in 1970. He was detained without any charges laid against him. What conclusion did he draw from those days? Let me read you a poem written by Mr. Godin after the October 1970 events. The poem is entitled "October". I
apologize for my English pronunciation, but I must read this poem in the language in which it was written by its author. In reference to those events, including his arrest, Mr. Godin wrote:
They followed me, they taped me They spied on me, they tripped me They broke in on me, they fell down on me They hooked me, they trapped me
They arrested me without a warrant without a reason, without a word, without a look and they frisked my brain
They jailed me, they banned me, they exiled me They laughed at me, they tried to destroy me
And there was a big silence around here then There was a sort of continental silence All my friends had left town
None of the usual talkers could find his words or his breath None of the usual writers could find his pen or his ink
But still I am here tonight and I'm gonna be here for a long long time decades and decades after they'll have disappeared from here
I'll be hanging around looking for justice, looking for peace looking after my brothers and sisters
This is what Mr. Godin wrote following the October 1970 events, and I think we should all reflect on these words. Again, the purpose of this motion is to ask the federal government to apologize to the victims of illegal arrests, and provide financial compensation.