Madam Speaker, I am pleased to take the floor, even on such a very sad day. In fact, to be perfectly honest, it is not so much the day that is very sad as the parliamentary record of the government over there.
I would never have believed I would be rising to speak to a bill like Bill C-20, boldly titled an act to give effect to the requirement for clarity as set out in the opinion of the Supreme Court of Canada in the Quebec Secession Reference.
The contents of this bill are despotic in themselves, and its principle alone is sufficient to justify our vehement opposition. If the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs wants to talk of clarity, yes his bill is clear. There is not even any subtlety in it. The federal government wants to prevent the Quebec people from freely deciding its future. In my opinion, what is clear is that the bill is nothing less than a coup d'état aimed at Quebec democracy.
This bill questions the basic rules of democracy. In introducing Bill C-20, the Canadian government is trying to impose a veto on the decisions Quebecers will be taking democratically on their political future. Such a thing has never been seen.
Canada struts about on the international scene loudly proclaiming its democratic principles, while not even bothering to respect them at home. What a fine example.
Just about three years ago now, when I chose to get into politics, my purpose was of course to promote sovereignty, but also to come here to Ottawa in order to defend Quebec's interests.
I can remember how hopeful I was at that time. Yes, hopeful that we would manage, as people motivated by democratic principles, to exchange views and reach agreement that Quebecers had to be allowed to decide their own future according to their own will.
Democratically elected, a legitimate mandate in my hands, I never thought I would be participating one day in this sham of democracy.
May I remind the House that, as John F. Kennedy put it so well, the true politician hangs on to his ideals as he loses his illusions. Thanks to the government opposite, I have lost my illusions. However, I am keeping my ideal, which is independence for Quebec.
In 1997, I still thought that words like right, equality, respect and justice meant something to the people of Canada and their representatives.
I thought, naively perhaps, that these principles were worth something. Well, today, with Bill C-20, the government across from us is proving the opposite: in any case, certainly the Prime Minister and the Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs.
Bill C-20 constitutes a serious and unprecedented attack against the democratic principles Quebecers have set for themselves and against the institutions they have created. It is an attack against Quebec's freedom of choice. And yet, for the past 30 years the political debate over the future of Quebec has been marked by a profound respect of the rules of democracy. Today the Liberal government is denying this democratic tradition.
But really, what else can we expect from a party governing with arrogance and disdain for so many years? What can we expect from a government that has no sense of justice? Should we really be surprised by the tactics of the Liberal government, since the current Prime Minister is behind all the attacks against Quebec and was more importantly one of the artisans of the night of the long knives? Can we expect anything else? This is a government that has proven its lack of any sense of democracy, preferring to manage the country's business without consultation, without transparency and without concern for the opinion of others.
This government is trying to make political gains in the rest of Canada on the backs of the people of Quebec and to the detriment of the most basic respect for democracy.
I remind the House that the sovereignist movement has great respect for democracy and for the state of law. There is a broad consensus in Quebec in this regard.