Mr. Speaker, last weekend, for the 19th year, Quebec's academy of cinema and television handed out its Gémeaux awards to television artists and craftspeople.
There are so many recipients that it would be presumptuous of me to try and name them all in the time allotted to me. I do, however, to that join with my colleagues from the Bloc Québécois in congratulating them.
As we know, the Québécois culture is alive and well. But, as a female sportscaster so aptly put it at one of the two galas, it is not just a matter of helping our publicly owned televisions survive, but rather of ensuring they are fully alive.
Artists and craftspeople need recognition. The cultural community relies on us, in this place, to have decent means of expression and development.
We can never overemphasize this point: culture is the soul , the psyche of nations. Without culture, our individuality, our distinctive collective identities are doomed to decay.