Madam Speaker, I could almost support that amendment yesterday except for one thing. It mentioned a referendum and I was under the impression that again we would be subjecting the rights of these people, especially minority groups as we have in Newfoundland and Labrador on this particular issue, and condoning the referendum to take these rights away.
Maybe there are times when we should have a referendum to adjust the Constitution of Canada. However, when there is a minority group, then I do not believe that without its consent we should take away those rights. That group would be the loser by definition.
The very fact that those people belong to a minority group should keep them outside of that particular process. Seeing the word referendum to me was an indication that if we had a minority rights issue, we would holus-bolus take it to a referendum to remove those rights. I have a great concern about that.
Other than that I thought the leader of the Reform Party made an excellent speech yesterday. There were many points in his speech which I agreed with. As a matter of fact, I sent him a note requesting a copy of his remarks because it was such a good speech. However, with respect to the referendum process and the taking away of rights of a minority group, that was of great concern to me.