Mr. Speaker, I am going to remain calm, as otherwise I shall have to ask you to use your authority to allow me to express myself properly in this House.
So, this is inclusive citizenship. Bill C-16 gives us that opportunity. It must be kept in mind that there was legislation in place which dated back to 1977 and needed to be remodeled, updated, modernized, in order to take into consideration a number of elements that apply to new trends.
This bill is precisely the means of carrying out an in depth review of citizenship. It has provided us with the opportunity.
As I said, I was in favour of the principle of Bill C-16 a few months ago, but the more we looked at it, the clearer it became that a number of elements encroached, to all intents and purposes, on areas of Quebec jurisdiction.
I will look in particular at clause 8 of the bill, which deals specifically with the whole issue of international adoption. Under the Civil Code of Quebec, adoption is a provincial matter. In many respects, our system operates differently from that of the rest of Canada.
Under Quebec's legislation, adoption takes place after the arrival of the child in Quebec and in Canada. In addition, the adoption process is complete when there is a decision by a Quebec court. What Bill C-16 is proposing is that adoption be completed in the country of residence of the adopting citizen. Citizenship could therefore be granted to a child even before he or she arrived in Quebec.
This has important repercussions. First, it could be called discriminatory to a certain degree towards Quebec parents intending to adopt. In a note sent to the committee on April 11, the Quebec department of health and social services clearly indicated that there was a very definite risk of major interference in Quebec's jurisdiction.
Even though there have been a number of multilateral negotiations with the Government of Quebec, it took the intervention of the Bloc Quebecois in committee before bilateral negotiations could begin between Quebec City and Ottawa.
Mr. Speaker, may I point out to you that there is only one member listening to me in the House?