Mr. Speaker, I think the minister's gesture only discredits the minister and underscores the lack of substance in his message and his failure to act in this area.
I shall, if I may, get back to the subject of my speech. I said the minister should read the 1995 report of the human rights committee tabled in this House a year ago in December. This unanimous report was endorsed by the members of his party, the government party, by the members of the opposition and the members of the Reform Party. It provided a concrete response to the demands of persons with disabilities.
Almost a year later, his predecessor decided to use taxpayers' money to set up a partisan committee, which fortunately was joined by representatives of groups of people with disabilities from all across Canada. This committee tabled its report in October. Here is what the Liberal group, the minister's group, said in the first few pages of its report, which the minister has not read-as his comments clearly show. The report says: "While their arguments have been listened to at the political level and by governments, there has been a growing gap between saying and doing".
A little further along, the report states: "At the federal level", this is the Liberals talking, "responses to the report tabled by the human rights committee in 1995 have been equivocal and in some cases non-existent". The response to the framework document, the latest report of the Standing Committee on Human Rights and the Status of Persons with Disabilities intimated that the status quo was good enough. This is the government's response.
And what do they have to say? All puffed up today, the day of persons with disabilities, the minister offers us six or seven pages worth of his desire for governments, various provinces and various departments to co-operate. People with disabilities do not want co-operation, they want action, they want constructive action.
No one is expecting the minister to introduce measures during the election campaign or in version two of the red book; they want action now. However-and I will close on this-the minister's response appears on the first page. You have to read between the lines. On the first page, the minister says: "The measure of a society is based on how it includes all of its members in an active manner-". Fine lip service. The paragraph concludes: "The issues facing them", people with disabilities, "are not theirs alone". That is the government's response. In other words, line up and, when your turn comes along, maybe we will attend to you, if
we have the time. This is not how the official opposition sees things and this is not what we are going to defend in the weeks to come.