Madam Speaker, I have, as you can imagine, listened carefully to the speech by the hon. colleague from the Reform Party. I can see, without any ill will, that our colleague is obviously very ignorant of the Quebec reality. It would have been interesting if he had been able to come in person for a visit to Quebec, because the understanding he has could be compared to a Flintstone style of understanding, that is to say a pretty basic one.
I have three pieces of information I want to give him. The first is that the hon. colleague should know that the debate in Quebec is a longstanding one, not a recent development but one that goes back to the early 1960s. In other words, when he was still quite young, the debate was already going on in Quebec on the necessity to reorganize the school system on a linguistic basis.
I also want to refer to the parliamentary aspect, and I hope he will reply to me on this. In Quebec there was a parliamentary committee similar to the one in which we MPs and senators have been involved on the joint committee, and it was focussed on the very subject of creating linguistic school boards.
If the hon. member wants to count heads, he can look at the list I have already tabled at the parliamentary committee.
All the groups that voiced their opinions on Bill 109 which, as you know, only dealt with the establishment of linguistic school boards, also came to Ottawa to be heard.
Therefore, my first comment is that the hon. member should be much more careful when he is suggesting that no consultations took place.
Second, I realize the hon. member is a new member here, but it takes some nerve to say he is worried about guarantees for the minority. So, the hon. member, whose party is the only one in this House with no members from Quebec—and this will not change in the foreseeable future—is worried about how Quebec's English-speaking minority is treated.
We should remind the hon. member that, in Quebec, it is possible for anglophones to go to English schools from kindergarten to university, to have access to education services in English, to have control over their own mass media—newspapers, radio, television—and to have access to health services in English. Myself and all Bloc Quebecois members would not have it any other way. The hon. member should be pleased to see how Quebec has so generously, and for so many years, been treating its English-speaking minority. And it will continue to do so. No Bloc Quebecois member thinks it should be otherwise.
The fact is that no one is in favour of the status quo. I ask the hon. member this: Why, as we are about to enter the new millennium, should we specifically provide preferential treatment for Catholics and Protestants? I agree that it is positive discrimination, but it is still discriminatory.
To the extent that we are a law-abiding society—and the hon. member alluded to this several times—we have two charters: the Canadian charter and the Quebec charter. Both of them include the right to freedom of religion. While in 1867 Quebec was a relatively monolithic society as regards religion, it is no longer the case now. There are 108 cultural communities in Montreal which profess religions other than Catholicism or Protestantism.
By passing the resolution—and I hope it will be passed despite the Reform Party's opposition—we will pave the way for greater pluralism in the public forum that schools represent. I therefore ask the member why this kind of discrimination he is urging us to perpetuate should be maintained.
Second, I ask him if he will agree that the treatment of the anglophone minority in Quebec is exemplary, that we are giving him every guarantee that as far as we are concerned, as members of the Bloc Quebecois, we wish this to continue.
I urge him to be extremely careful when he talks of the petition, because that is not what the majority of Quebeckers want. This is what the polls and consultations show and I would remind the member that we have been discussing this issue since 1963. The member would do well to improve his knowledge of Quebec, and I would be pleased to serve as his guide, perhaps even his spiritual guide, whenever he would like to meet with concerned groups. It would be my great pleasure to show him the situation in Quebec, because I regret to say that his understanding is based on stereotypes.