Madam Speaker, I agree with the hon. member that we are getting off topic in a very serious way.
I would like to bring the discussion back on track by saying to the member that he knows full well that the Reform Party is not in favour of any particular ethnic group in Canada. We are fully in favour of equal rights and equal treatment for all Canadians.
One reason the Reform Party opposed the Charlottetown accord was because of the unequal treatment of people based on their ethnicity and background. We said that was wrong.
One trend that has been noted over the last little while is that hearing individual cases of discrimination before the Canadian Human Rights Commission takes an average of a year and a half. I agree there is still discrimination and prejudice and we must fight against it. However the time to hear individual cases has now expanded to a year and a half. The number of cases is dropping year by year because people have given up coming before the commission asking for redress.
I guess my question to the member is this. What does he think we should ask the human rights commission to stress? Should we try to get the time period for the commission to hear cases down from a year and a half to a more reasonable length of time? Should we be spending more and more of our time and energies on the group rights cases, some of them six and seven year cases? I just wonder what he thinks we should do.
Should individuals have quicker access and more resources committed to their individual cases of discrimination? Personally I believe that is what should happen.