Mr. Speaker, let us get the facts straight. Was it a dirty trick, as a major Quebec daily called it, a dirty trick in the usual sense of the word? Generally, the expression is used to describe something underhanded or illegal. Was citizenship granted to people illegally? The answer is no.
Everyone who received a certificate of citizenship was entitled to one and was entitled to vote. Did my predecessor, now the Minister of the Environment, deny that the department was making a special effort to issue citizenship certificates? No.
He said in this House, on October 16, that we were issuing citizenship certificates in this case as in any other government campaign. Those are the facts.