Madam Speaker, first of all, I did not have the opportunity to congratulate our colleague on being elected and I would like to do so now. I was told he is a jurist, but I have the impression he has not reread some of his notes recently.
I have three brief questions for him.
I recognize, as all of my colleagues do, that the federalist option is a legitimate one. My problem is, and I would like the member to be quite clear on this point, I wonder if he is concerned about the way we treat our minorities and the way we will treat our minorities in the future.
Does he acknowledge that the Taylors, the Smiths and the English speaking community are part of the history of Quebec and that we stated in the 1995 agreement that we would recognize them as a founding minority, give them all the rights they enjoy now and continue to grant them, in a sovereign Quebec, the status of a national minority?
As a democrat well versed in law and history, does the hon. member recognize that, on this planet Earth, Quebec is among the communities that have every reason to be proud of the way they treat their minority?
Would the hon. member, first of all, recognize this?
Second, the hon. member is wrong to be concerned about the role we want to give our native fellow citizens. Can he also recognize, as a democrat and a jurist, that there was in the history of our province a remarkable man, René Lévesque, who rose in the national assembly—he was among the first to do so in America—to recognize not only the natives' right to self-government but also the fact that they are, based on a number of clear principles, a people?
I would ask the hon. member to act in good faith and recognize that the sovereignist option is just as legitimate as the federalist one. Also, those who are concerned about the future only have to look at how we have treated our minorities so far. The conduct of the sovereignists in this regard is beyond reproach.