Mr. Speaker, I wish I had a clear answer to give my hon. colleague. I share the concerns of the hon. member for Trois-Rivières.
He mentioned the dinosaurs—oops, sorry—the senators. Dinosaurs and senators. When I travelled through my riding last week, someone told me a story about senators. It went like this “How does a senator wink? By opening an eye.” It is odd, but it describes them well.
About a year ago, I passed by a senator's office as I was walking down a corridor. It was 10 a.m. and the senator was at his window. I stopped and said “Stop looking out of your window, senator, or you will have nothing left to do this afternoon”.
That is the image we have of these dinosaurs, as you called them. One of the dinosaurs you referred to would like to give us lessons in democracy. That takes the cake. A member of the most undemocratic institution in the world wants to give lessons in democracy to a province, or a legislature, that legitimately obtained a democratic mandate from the people.
Two referenda were held in Newfoundland. That is still not enough. He comes and tells us “You in Quebec, your consensus—” Our consensus is based on a unanimous resolution passed in the National Assembly, where three political parties are represented: the ADQ, the PQ and the Liberal Party. I estimate that half the Liberal Party members are anglophones and individuals from the various ethnic backgrounds that enrich the people of Quebec. These members unanimously proposed, after consulting their communities, a number of amendments, which were approved by the National Assembly following further consultations at the time of the États généraux on Bill 109.
So, we held the necessary consultations and all of a sudden an old dinosaur from the other place told us: “Is this a democratic process?” And he adds that when we hold a referendum on sovereignty, and we will, he will not feel bound by it. He is saying: “Hold a referendum, but if it goes through, we will not feel bound by the decision. However, if it does not go through, we will say that it was proper, that democracy is protected”.