Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of the amendment to section 93 of the Constitution Act, 1867.
This motion is particularly important because it proposes a constitutional amendment. We must always proceed with great caution when amending provisions of our Constitution, for the impact will be felt for generations to come.
I had the pleasure of sitting on the committee responsible for studying the constitutional amendment. It was my first experience on a parliamentary committee and I must say how much I appreciated the cordial atmosphere that characterized the committee's proceedings. As a rookie in the House of Commons, I found it an excellent opportunity to learn from senators and members with many years' experience. The committee's work was truly motivated by a desire to arrive at a solution that would best serve the interests of Quebeckers and of Canadians.
I would like to thank my colleagues, who spent much time and effort during these three weeks in order to ensure that the groups affected by this amendment could be heard.
During the three weeks the committee sat, we had a chance to meet with a broad range of groups both in support of and opposed to the proposed constitutional amendment. There was not complete consensus, as the Quebec government had led us to believe. A number of religious communities and linguistic groups are opposed to the amendment to section 93 because they are afraid that the rights they have acquired will disappear.
The special joint committee on the Quebec school system therefore had an important job: to consult the people of Quebec and of Canada in order to ensure that all points of view were expressed and heard.
Before looking at all those in favour of the constitutional amendment, I would first of all like to speak about those groups that are opposed. Numerous religious and linguistic groups travelled to Ottawa in order to make their concerns known.
The groups opposed to the amendment to section 93 expressed serious concerns about the status of minority rights in our Canadian society if the amendment is passed. If these rights to education can be constantly revisited with very little public consultation, other minority rights are also vulnerable. They argue that there is a great danger that minority rights will be withdrawn based simply on the will of the majority. This is why it is important to hold public hearings where all sides of the issue can be heard. The Government of Quebec refused to hold public hearings on this issue and the minority concerned hardly had the opportunity to make its views known.
The minorities in question are the Protestants. In Quebec, there are the Protestants and the Catholics. In Quebec, Protestants were the minority. Those groups I heard in committee were minorities of minorities.
As legislators, we often forget that we represent the people. We should never be afraid to consult the people. They put us here and they can take us out.
I realize that the Government of Quebec had a strict timetable to follow, but it has no excuse for not setting up public hearings where people could have expressed their views, especially when the issue is the amendment of our Constitution. Lack of consultation is harmful not only to those groups who cannot have a voice, but also to the health of democracy in our country.
By consultation, I mean consultations through public meetings prior to the implementation of such changes or requests for change.
Despite these difficulties, it is important to note that minority rights in Canada are not being compromised. Amending section 93 of the Constitution is a specific issue that affects Quebec only. It has no impact on the rights of other minority communities in Quebec or elsewhere in Canada.
Groups opposed to the amendment also told us of their concern about losing their denominational schools. It should be noted that the purpose of amending section 93 is the abolition of denominational school boards in the cities of Quebec and Montreal. The proposed changes do not prohibit Catholic or Protestant schools. Rather they affect how schools are managed.
I am concerned that acquired rights are being withdrawn to please the majority. In my riding of Acadie—Bathurst, people fought long and hard to ensure that francophone schools in the communities of Saint-Sauveur, Saint-Simon et Sainte-Rose remain open.
Let us not forget that people took to the streets in protest when the government attempted to close the schools. This is why I say that I am very concerned whenever changes are proposed to the Constitution. We must keep in mind that the RCMP used dogs, tear gas and nightsticks against children and parents. This is why I feel so strongly about constitutional changes affecting schools.
Our children's education is a very sensitive issue. When new strategies on the management of our school systems are put forward, we should make sure that all aspects have been examined, hence the importance of consulting the public through public hearings.
I believe that the present situation in Quebec is one of the very few exceptions allowing us to question the privileges granted Protestant and Catholic communities. Let us not forget that section 93 protects only two denominational groups in two cities. This means that people in the Gaspé Peninsula, for example, enjoy no protection at all under section 93 as pertains to denominational education. Furthermore, all other denominational groups have no protection under section 93. The cultural context of 1867 may have justified the protection of only two denominational communities but the multicultural character of Quebec in 1997 could hardly justify protecting some communities and not the others.
There may not be unanimity in Quebec about section 93 but there is nonetheless a large consensus. Even the denominational groups that are affected support the amendment of section 93 because an amended section would better reflect Quebec's cultural and linguistic reality.
The Provincial Association of Catholic Teachers, which represents 3,000 teachers from 25 school boards in Quebec, supports the constitutional amendment because, under the current system, the English community is divided between two school systems.
It argues that religious education and denominational schools are still possible if the parents request it. Amending section 93 and setting up linguistic school boards will meet the needs of both the and the French community. Most groups that came before us believed linguistic school boards were a must.
If the Protestants and Catholics who are affected are in favour of amending section 93, it would be irresponsible on our part to ignore such a consensus.
In spite of this fairly obvious consensus, our Reform friends would like a referendum. Do they not realize that a referendum cannot reflect the minority's interests? We are talking about minority rights here; the will of the majority is only part of what we have to consider.
I would be more concerned about supporting the amendment to section 93 if all the political parties in Quebec were not in agreement. However, when the National Assembly debated this issue, it was passed not only by a majority vote, but unanimously: 103 to zero. We all know in this House how difficult it is to achieve unanimity on a particular issue. If the National Assembly succeeded in securing unanimous consent on such controversial issues as language and religion, it must be recognized that voters as a whole had to be in agreement too.
I had another concern during committee hearings. When we speak about denominational schools, we are speaking about the importance of communicating, through the school system, values that are fundamental to us. However, we often forget that children are caught in difficult situations when religion is taught in schools.
I have a hard time admitting that Pierre will have to leave the classroom whenever the teacher speaks about Jesus because Pierre is a Jehovah's Witness. We must think very carefully about what it means to teach religion in schools given our present cultural reality. We must respect all the children attending our schools.
I pondered carefully over what was said in committee. I even spoke with several priests in my riding and they think that religious education should be the responsibility of parents and not that of the schools.
The school should definitely convey fundamental values, but the true transmission of values should be done by the family and the church.
One of the most important roles we have as parents is to communicate to our children the beliefs and values that we consider as important. To abandon this responsibility by relying on school teachers to do this job will clearly harm our children.
The amendment to section 93 shows how the federal government can serve Quebec's interests. This situation shows how our country can be flexible in certain circumstances to put forward policies that reflect the specific needs of a province. This co-operation between the provinces and the federal government is the foundation of the Canadian federation and, as a result, Canadians and Quebeckers come out of this as winners.
Even though I support the proposed amendment, I still have concerns about the process that has led us to debate this issue. I have indicated earlier and I will repeat that the Quebec government should have consulted the people of Quebec through public hearings.
The special joint committee, here in the federal Parliament, only had two weeks to hear witnesses. Because of the deadline that had been set, some groups had some difficulty coming to tell us about their concerns. Amending the Constitution should not be an exercise to be taken lightly and two weeks are not enough to go around such an issue.
Despite these problems, I put my trust in the people of Quebec. If there are concerns that have not been expressed through our committee, I hope the population of Quebec will be listened to.
Fundamentally, the New Democratic Party respects Quebec's autonomy to establish linguistic school boards. The amendment to section 93 will allow the Quebec school system to better respond to the needs of the population of Quebec. We now trust that the Quebec government will establish the new linguistic school boards with all due consideration of the electorate's concerns.