Madam Speaker, I will answer a couple of the hon. member's concerns. Flintstone, maybe, but I believe one thing that has not been addressed quite properly is that the request to amend the constitution is really an extinguishment of sections 1 to 4.
Having been in the construction industry for years I always believed that we should build on to our constitution, moulding and improving it, not ripping it down. That is the direction that should be taken.
Certainly sections 1 to 4 need some improvement to better represent today's society in Quebec and in other parts of Canada, but I do not believe the way to do that is by extinguishing it and removing it for all time. I believe we can make those improvements to the constitution.
Let me speak to the consensus reached at the meetings. One group represented two million people and there were eight more groups represented in the two million people. They are also individually represented in the group. Out of 60 groups represented, eight of them were contained in the one group which represented two million people. When I questioned one of the groups which represented some 180,000 members on whether it had polled its membership the answer was no. Clearly some of these groups which were claiming to represent their members were representing themselves. They had not polled their members.
I agree the question of reform in the education system has been going on for 30 years, but there has not been a discussion about removing section 93 to do it. There has been a discussion on reforming the education system along linguistic lines. There has not been a discussion of extinguishing sections 1 to 4 of the constitution. That has been a very recent phenomenon. It is not well understood by a large number of Quebeckers that the intent of the motion is to remove these rights.
There is consensus for reforming the school system along linguistic lines, but I do not believe there is consensus for the method proposed, which is to extinguish the constitution to get to that end.