Madam Speaker, I believe I answered the hon. member by quoting the words of his leader, the Premier of Quebec, who recognized the quality, in fact the great quality, of the Canadian justice system, including the supreme court.
Yes, we have a court renowned throughout the world and one of the most often quoted. The opinion it will give will be considered by judicial experts and courts all over the world, because it will carry weight in some other countries, something which will be considered as very important.
I am confident that the justices really want to be honest and competent.
The other thing that should be said is that we are not asking the court whether it is right or wrong to secede. We are not asking the court to declare that Quebeckers should stay in Canada against their will. We are asking the court to tell us whether or not the PQ government, the present Quebec government, has any legitimacy when it argues that it has the right to proclaim itself the government of an independent state based on the results of a consultation of the people it alone established and interpreted.
We should not confuse the issues for political reasons. They are too important for that.
If the court renders a decision favourable to the position of the Government of Canada, everybody will benefit from this information. We are not going to make important decisions without that information.
If you are a union leader and you tell your members that you can launch an illegal strike, you are not acting in a democratic way.
What the Government of Quebec is presently asking its citizens to do is precisely that—