Mr. Speaker, I am speaking as an Acadian from Nova Scotia and I wish to comment on the remarks made by the hon. member for Barrie—Simcoe—Bradford. In 1994, the then leader of the opposition said, in a speech to the Association canadienne-française de l'Ontario, that the Bloc Quebecois was the voice of francophones outside Quebec in the House of Commons.
More recently, in an interview with the daily Le Droit , the Bloc Quebecois critic on official languages said that the Bloc would always defend francophones outside Quebec. This is why I am very surprised by the events that took place in recent days. I am surprised that the Bloc Quebecois did not make mention of its support for francophone and Acadian communities in its action plan for the year 2000, which was tabled last week—