Mr. Speaker, I will reiterate what I already said. I said that it was absolutely fundamental for citizens to have the right in a free and democratic society to engage in peaceful, meaningful, legitimate protest.
I have said before and I will say again that it is my view that the overwhelming majority of citizens who will be going to demonstrate in Quebec, including the NDP caucus, will be there to engage in peaceful, meaningful protest.
I had the opportunity to be in Windsor and that was the case in Windsor. My colleague for Winnipeg—Transcona was in Seattle. In a phone conversation I had with him he told me about the tragedy in Seattle of 30,000 to 40,000 citizens who came together in an earnest search for an alternative, progressive, global vision, a progressive model for international fair trade deals, and that the world was not even hearing about it because a tiny group of people had a different agenda and were prepared to use violent tactics to put forward their point of view.
Let me make it clear that the New Democratic Party caucus in its entirety will be in Quebec to participate in peaceful protest. Let me also say that peaceful, non-violent civil disobedience has also been a time honoured tactic that has often been an element of winning important struggles for justice and democracy in the world. The NDP caucus is not going to Quebec to engage in civil disobedience or to break the law, but let us not try to mobilize public opinion against the thousands and thousands of—