I have just now heard a rather inaudible, but certainly not very polite, exclamation from the Reform ranks, without any clarity to it whatsoever, as usual. If our Reform colleagues have something to say, I believe they should take the floor and do so. They could try to do it the way civilized people do, with a subject, a verb and an object.
That said, I would remind hon. members that all Bloc Quebecois members of parliament are extremely proud to support this treaty, because it indicates a path to be followed in the relations we will have to establish with the first nations. We take our inspiration from what the Government of Quebec, the René Lévesque government, did.
Among the four elements of fact we are pleased to remember, we in the Bloc Quebecois, is the fact that in Quebec a lot more land belongs exclusively to the aboriginal people than in the other provinces.
We would also point out that eight native languages are still spoken in Quebec, proportionally more, given the ratio of native people to the population of Quebec as a whole, than is the case outside Quebec.
We also want to say with pride that the French language charter accords the Amerindians and the Inuit the right to keep their language. This is a specific provision of the French language charter, and no member of the Bloc Quebecois or of the National Assembly would not want this provision to be an effective part of Bill 101. Perhaps the most important is that, in Quebec as in British Columbia and the maritime provinces, the title “Indian” and the title “aboriginal” exist, creating the legal basis for enshrining self-government for the aboriginal peoples.
Our colleague, the member for Saint-Jean, put it so eloquently. He is one of few of us who can claim considerable stability in his functions as critic, since, apart from a brief period of a few months, he has always been the Bloc Quebecois critic in these matters, hence his enlightened expertise.
We have listened to this expertise and will vote enthusiastically in favour of the bill the government has put before us, and we say in closing “Shame on the Reform Party”.