Mr. Speaker, I would like to remark on one comment made by the hon. member which has not yet been raised today. One new idea has come up today that we have not heard rehashed over and over again, and that is that treating people equally is not the same as treating everyone in the exact same way. Equality is not the same as treating everybody in the exact same way because it does not recognize the historic imbalances which may exist. We should be shooting for equal opportunity or access to equal opportunity, and that may make it necessary to treat some people unequally in order to raise them up to the same, level platform.
I would like to quote from Judge Murray Sinclair of Manitoba in the Manitoba aboriginal justice inquiry. He put it very well and in very short terms. He stated:
Discrimination involves the concept that the application of uniform standards, common rules and treatment of people who are not the same constitutes a form of discrimination. It means that in treating unlike people alike, adverse consequences, hardships or injustice may result.
I want to thank the member for raising that very key point because it helps to defuse some of the misinformation that we have heard from members today.