Mr. Speaker, the process of a population of a province or a country expressing itself by referendum is not new.
Naturally, the opinion of the population when expressed by referendum is important. No one contests that. Nor does anyone contest the right of the population of Quebec to express itself on any such question.
What has caught the attention of the national government is that the Government of Quebec in the litigation which raises the legality of l'avant de project de loi and Bill No. 1 has taken the position that after such a thing might occur, neither the Constitution nor the courts have any role or relevance in determining what would happen then, or in the declaration of sovereignty by the province of Quebec. That is a very fundamental issue.
As I have indicated to the House, we are considering whether we can assist the court on those legal points. That is why we are considering intervention in that case. It has nothing to do with blackmail at all. It has to do with fundamental principles of law and the rule of law. That is what we have under consideration.