Mr. Speaker, I wish to congratulate the member. I did not have an opportunity to refer to his speech a little earlier. It took me as a bit of a surprise that he stated the position he had. It shows there is quite a bit of diversity in that caucus on this issue as well.
Do I see this educational issue as being a precedent, a door opening for other minority rights?
As I indicated to the member from the Bloc, we must always be prepared to have a Constitution that is flexible. When we have 30 million Canadians from so many backgrounds, with so many different interests, but then at the end of the day saying we believe in this great country it is going to create a bit of a problem for many of us if we are not prepared to acknowledge that the Constitution is something that must change with changing times.
I am worried about existing rights that are acknowledged by the minorities, not simply from a position of vested interest, but given the history of this amendment. Many have written us saying: "We have a problem here. The government seems prepared to steamroller a particular issue with the help, by and with the consent of the government, through the House of Commons and through the Senate. We think that you should stop for a moment and really think about what you are doing in the context of that which we agreed to only 50 years ago".
I respect the fact that in this House there are many members of Parliament who are a little older than 50 years so it is not really that long ago. No offence of course to the hon. whip of our party.
However, in all sincerity to the hon. member's question because it is an excellent one, I do not believe we should be moving toward rectifying new rights when we have not been able to demonstrate a guarantee that we are going to be able to defend the rights that we have already proclaimed. That is exactly the point with which I think the House must be seized.