Mr. Speaker, as Minister for International Trade and as a Quebecer I would never support any measure to gag Quebec's national assembly.
This bill respects the right of the Quebec national assembly to ask a question on what it intends to do. If this then means asking the House of Commons, the Government of Canada, to negotiate, we have a duty not to embark on negotiations on Quebec's independence if the question asked was not clear.
I want to stress that I support the choice made by Quebecers. Seventy-two percent of them do not want another referendum, but the people opposite want to continue to divide us and to make us weaker.