Mr. Speaker, I must compliment the hon. member for St. Boniface on his excellent speech. I agree with what he said. I share his concerns about this amendment to the Constitution of Canada.
I would like to put a question to the member for St. Boniface, who, like me, has a great deal of experience in education. In fact, I gathered from his speech that the hon. member was once Deputy Minister of Education of his province. This means that whatever he may say on this subject is very important and that he speaks from experience. It is clear from what the hon. member said that some people have real concerns about this and that we should think twice before voting for the motion.
I am concerned about French speaking minorities. I wonder why French-Canadians cannot run their schools in their own language in Newfoundland. The hon. member said other alternatives could be considered. In light of his experience, I would be curious to know what he has in mind.
Instead of taking the major step of asking the Parliament of Canada to approve this amendment, what intermediate step could the Government of Newfoundland have taken before asking us to amend the Constitution?
He raised another point that caused me some concern, and I would like him to clarify this for me. He mentioned that people in Ontario were interested in something similar in order to make changes to the education system in Ontario. As a French speaking catholic, both minority groups in Ontario, I wonder if he could elaborate on this.