Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague for asking his question a second time. The first time around I thought that if he had directed his question to me, I would have had an answer for him.
I have to partially agree with him. We are trying to find a balance between security and protecting citizens' rights and freedoms. That is certain. Nonetheless, my colleague will agree that this is arbitrary. What would we do if we were American? We would tighten measures even further and invest in the army and anything related to war. They did just that with their intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq. That is how Americans see things.
The United States, our neighbour, has ten times the population we do. The member was talking about sovereignty. He knows full well that the issue of sovereignty is especially dear to our hearts on this side of the House. When he talks about sovereignty, is it a good idea to copy an American system?
I saw Tom Ridge and John Ashcroft come to sit in the gallery of this House and listen to oral question period; I saw the Minister of Finance, in the last budget, invest $7 billion and change in security by giving more to the RCMP, CSIS, the Canadian Forces and the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency.
Where does Canadian sovereignty fit in all this? Are we no longer able to have our say? Are the Americans dictating their wishes to various ministers and members of Parliament?
It is reflected in the budget and in the bill we are debating today. The Americans have probably asked the Canadian government to tighten things up concerning immigration, customs and revenue, and so on. We can see this developing and we have seen it starting with the 2002 budget, where $7 billion more was invested in security.
I think this bill goes much too far in the name of security. Canada has always been distinguished by its rights and freedoms; that has been our way of life in Canada and in Quebec. With this bill, we are making a dangerous change. In my opinion, we are in the process of losing—and this is a sovereigntist speaking—parts of Canadian and Quebec sovereignty by passing laws like this and playing the game by American rules.
Some people say that in 50 years the rest of Canada—perhaps not Quebec—will have become nine additional American states, and that this transformation will perhaps have started under the Liberal government now sitting opposite.