Mr. Speaker, Gérald Larose has announced that he will not be seeking another term as the head of the CSN.
After 25 years of involvement in and devotion to the cause of Quebec workers, including 16 as the president of the CSN, he is and will remain an outstanding figure in Quebec's labour history.
During his long career, he was a part of every struggle for social progress: those of workers, of course, but those too of women, the disadvantaged and society's rejects.
An open and direct man, he always communicated with feeling the faults of a free market society and the need for a more equitable distribution of the collective wealth.
He is also an ardent defender of the idea of a sovereign Quebec, which, for him represents as much the normal democratic and national course of the people of Quebec as social justice.
The Bloc Quebecois salutes this great man and wishes him good luck in his next undertaking.