Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to speak to Motion M-277 concerning a proposed change to the next Canadian census.
The member for Beaver River moved: "That, in the opinion of this House, the government should return the word "Canadian" among questions of ethnic origin on the Canadian Census". And my colleague, the member for Bellechasse, moved an amendment to this motion asking that it "include "Canadian", "Quebecker", "English-Canadian", "French-Canadian" and "Acadian" among questions of ethnic origin on the Canadian Census".
This goes back to the last Canadian census. It is truly astonishing that an agency as reliable as Statistics Canada, whose competence is recognized worldwide, produced such erroneous questions.
One of them, question 17, asks to which ethnic or cultural group the respondent's ancestors belong. The choices are: French, English, German, Canadian, Scottish, Jewish, Haitian, Jamaican, Vietnamese, and so on.
Question 19 reads as follows: "Is this person-and here comes the problematical point- white, Chinese, South Asian (for example, Indian, Pakistani, Punjabi, Sri Lankan)-here nations and
regions are being confused, since the Punjab is a region and not a country-black (for example, African, Haitian, Jamaican and Somali)-as if a person could not be white and be born in Africa-Arab, West Asian (for example, Armenian, Egyptian, Iranian, Lebanese, Moroccan), Filipino, Southeast Asian, Latin American, Japanese, Korean or other?".
It is, I imagine, in this list that the member for Beaver River would like to see the word "Canadian" added.
There is a very definite confusion between race, ethnic group, nationality, language, region and country. Yet these words do have definitions, and there is a capability at Statistics Canada, with all the scientific knowledge possessed by its employees and professionals, to define those concepts very well. There are ways to not confuse the concept of race, a concept that is becoming more and more obsolete anyway, we must admit.
As for ethnicity, this is an item of no scientific value, since the majority of people forget their ethnic group of origin. When I myself answered the questionnaire, I did not say I was French in origin, since my ancestors came to the country in 1657. I have more or less loss sight of that. I am Canadian in origin, born in Canada. For me, that presents no problem.
Except that if someone wants to ask me something more specific, to find out what group I really identify with in Canada, I cannot identify myself with a Canadian; there is no such thing as a Canadian. It is all very fine to spend a lot of money to try and make one exist, but a Canadian does not exist as such, in my opinion. At least not yet. I am of Canadian origin, of course, but I belong to the Quebec nation. My origin is the one I have in common with people who live in the same area and have the same common characteristics.
We are aware of a certain unity that exists among people who live in Quebec and increasingly, "Canadians" are defining themselves as Ontarians, Manitobans or Newfoundlanders. Many people from Newfoundland do not feel any more Canadian than Quebecers do. They are from Newfoundland first. Of course they will say they are from Canada, although they were the last to join Confederation.
So there are certain feelings, a certain commonality that unite us, through history, society, culture and above all through a desire to live together. I think that if they decide to keep this question in the next census questionnaire, it should be clarified to reflect the kind of answer that is desired.
It would be interesting to know with what kind of nationalism we can identify, because as we know each other better, we are more likely to accept each other as we are and understand each other, as long as we live in the same country or when we will live together as good neighbours. So we will know where we are from.
The important thing is that we can talk about our ethnic origin, without mixing up all these concepts as they were in question 19.
Now we can assume that all these people who work at Statistics Canada, with all their knowledge and skills, have a reason for asking the question the way they did. Strictly speaking, both Question No. 17 and question 19 are not a matter of census data or statistics but, in my opinion, purely political questions.
What is the point of these questions? The responses will be tallied, the number of people from France, Germany, Italy, China will be identified-as the questionnaire asks: Are you white, Chinese-you can be Chinese without ever setting foot in China. If you live in Hong Kong, Singapore or Taiwan, you are Chinese, but you can be Chinese without ever going to China.
A lot more precision is required. You can also be Canadian and not identify with English Canada at all. You can be a Canadian of francophone origin, but, because of your family history, be part of another segment of the population or the minority in Quebec. There are francophones, even Tremblays, whose name is given an English pronunciation and who do not speak a word of French anymore, because they belong to the anglophone minority in Quebec.
Perhaps these people do not see themselves as Quebecers anymore. They are more English Canadian, and we must respect their choice.
Why make the question unclear? No doubt in order to emphasize Canada's multiculturalism policy and convince us that Canada exists, that it is the most beautiful country in the world and that ours is a mosaic comprising every country. People are Ukrainian Canadians, Italian Canadians, Chinese Canadians-I could name all of the 200 countries in the world. We probably have people from all these places.
I have no objection to that, but it is the source of Canada's problem. And it is: a lack of Canadian identity. Maintaining multiculturalism within the country means that no one wants to become Canadian and so we end up not defining what it means to be Canadian. In my opinion, if Canada wants to progress and better understand itself-it will be doubtless very useful to us as neighbours some day-there is no reason to be afraid of identifying what one considers one's nationality.
The question must be clarified. There are Acadians in the country, there are French Canadians, there are Quebecers and there are Ontarians. It is vital to know what people consider to be their nationality.
We must open our eyes. We must look at the reality of our differences, learn to live together and respect one another, whether it be within a single country or as good neighbours.