Mr. Speaker, I am actually nervous about speaking to Bill C-63. I, who have spoken in the House perhaps 60 to 70 times without notes, am nervous this time. It is because of the nature of the subject.
First of all the circumstances of my speech. I learned that Bill C-63 was on the order paper just late Wednesday morning. I hurried over for question period to get a copy of the bill and to study it, because I had not looked at it before, just in time for the opening ceremonies on Wednesday which involves, as the House knows, the singing of O Canada. I came in here just on time. I was not on House duty, but the others were gathered on the other side and I stood next to the member for St. John's and sang with her. In O Canada is “God keep our land glorious and free”.
Then I sat in my place as question period unfolded and the Prime Minister answered questions from the opposition on various subjects. I read the proposed oath of citizenship that my colleague has just mentioned that has been put forward with Bill C-63. My heart sank.
I am sorry I do not share the view of the parliamentary secretary that this oath of citizenship really does reflect what we are as a country. The parliamentary secretary explained to me subsequently that it was something created by consensus, by consultation.
I suggest that sometimes consensus and consultation is not the way to go and where really one has to come to that place and to those people who deal every day with what it is to be a Canadian as part of their lives, as part of their professions perhaps to get an idea of what an oath of citizenship should be all about.
The oath begins: “From this day forward I pledge my loyalty and allegiance to Canada”. Loyalty and allegiance are synonyms. They are the same words. So we begin the new oath to take us into the next millennium with a redundancy.
It goes on: “We pledge allegiance to Canada, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Canada”. This is another redundancy. When I pledge allegiance to Canada I pledge allegiance to all Canada's democratic institutions. I pledge allegiance to this parliament. I pledge allegiance to the Queen. So long as the Queen is the Queen of Canada I pledge allegiance to the Queen whenever I pledge allegiance to Canada.
In other words, I am a monarchist. It is just that I am not so sure that we need in this part the Queen along with pledging allegiance to Canada, because I feel it is something of a redundancy.
The oath goes on: “I promise to respect our country's rights and freedoms and defend democratic values and faithfully observe our laws and fulfil the duties and obligations of a Canadian citizen”.
This does not capture what it is to be a Canadian. These are generalities. Yet in this place every day we debate very fundamental values that drive this country. One cannot be a member of parliament for more than a week or two before one realizes the five real principles that drive this country, that make this country free, that make this country Canada.
Those five principles are equality of opportunity, freedom of speech, democracy, basic human rights and the rule of law.
That day in question period we dealt with all those issues because always, in a country like Canada, the issues that have to be dealt with in parliament are the issues where we try to balance those five principles, where we balance the rule of law with basic human rights.
On that day in question period we dealt with hepatitis C, the problem of a ruling on child pornography and similar things. All these things deal with this balancing act on the five principles of Canada and Canadian freedom.
My biggest disappointment when reading the new oath was that there was no reference to God. Do members realize that among all the major nations that accept new citizens, we are the only country that has dropped God from our oath of citizenship. Australia has “under God” in its oath. Great Britain has “Almighty God” in its oath. New Zealand and the United States have “so help me God” in their oath.
We did have it at one time, 1976 I think it was, but for some reason it was decided that “so help me God” was not important in Canada's oath and it was dropped subsequently.
I am not a deeply religious person but I believe there is an eternal presence, there is something more, some higher authority, a higher authority than parliament, a higher authority than the country. We have reason to count our blessings as Canada. Those blessings emanate from a higher presence, from God.
I am a member of a village church, the United Church of Canada. I am not a terribly regular churchgoer but I do go. The stained glass window is yellow. As the minister may be speaking or the choir singing, that window lights up with sunlight. I sit in my pew and think how grateful I am to be among my people, my community, how grateful I am to be a Canadian where there are no wars and no strife, where I can feel at home with people who love one another. I know that is a heck of a thing to say but that does happen in church. That is what church is all about.
During the referendum crisis in 1995 the Liberals had a lot more seats than now and there was an overflow on the opposition side. I had a seat on the opposite side, right next to the opposition, that faced toward the Prime Minister.
One of my most moving memories was during that debate on the referendum crisis to see the Prime Minister attempting to defend the country he believed in, in the most crucial moment of his life trying to defend Canada against what was a real questioning of whether Canada should stay united.
I could see the Prime Minister trying to find the words and trying to speak and he would look over my way because I suppose the camera was directly behind me and he could address the Canadian people. I could look into the Prime Minister's eyes as he spoke and I knew the passion he was feeling.
In the context of that I could look up to the northwest window, the Ontario window, and the sunlight would invade the glass of that window. That window is comprised of trilliums and at the very top the three maple leaves of Canada. The trillium of course is the trinity and the trillium that was chosen for that glass is not all white. It is stained red.
When we make these associations we realize there has to be a bit more than just words, more than just things, there has to be something that is greater than all of us that does give these blessings that make us Canada, that make us Canadian.
I have to think that 99.99% of new people coming from anywhere in the world come from cultures where there is a god. It may not be the God of Christ. It may be the god of another great religion but still there would be a god and I think they would expect to see an oath of citizenship that contains the word god, an invocation to God.
I sat here today among my colleagues with the encouragement of the members for Brampton West—Mississauga and for Dufferin—Peel—Wellington—Grey. I made an effort to write a new and different oath of citizenship. I wrote it right here. This is not a prop. This a piece of paper on which I jotted my notes during question period. This is what I wrote.
I wrote “In pledging my allegiance to Canada and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second”, and the next part was difficult because I did not want to say promise. I did not know what words to use and then it occurred to me with the encouragement of my colleagues: “I take my stand, I take my place among Canadians”, and the rest of it flowed very easily, “united before God whose sacred trust is to uphold five principles: equality of opportunity, freedom of speech, democracy, basic human rights and the rule of law”.
It flowed so much more easily in French:
En prêtant allégeance au Canada, je me compte au nombre des Canadiens qui sont unis par leur foi en Dieu et leur attachement à cinq grands principes: l'égalité des chances, la liberté d'expression, les valeurs démocratiques, le respect des droits de la personne et la primauté du droit.