Mr. Speaker, I listened very closely to the extremely eloquent speech by my learned colleague from Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, who gave a historical overview of the perverse effects of the powers of disallowance and reservation which, in passing, have not been used for many decades, which indicates to most constitutionalists that these powers have literally fallen out of use.
However, our colleague from Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington proposes to eliminate or strike sections 56, 57 and certain provisions in section 90 of the Constitution Act, 1867, so as to make the Constitution of Canada compatible with Canada's status as a sovereign nation.
First, we must say that it is commendable to want to bring a country's constitution in line with its political reality. However, the Bloc Québécois will not be supporting this motion. I will explain shortly the reasons why we will not be doing so.
Obviously, the reasons we will not be supporting this motion are not the same ones mentioned just now by the parliamentary secretary. It is not because I believe in the virtues of Canadian federalism that I shall oppose this motion. Moreover, I thought perhaps that I heard in the parliamentary secretary's opening remarks that there might be a hidden agenda in the government's desire to maintain these powers of disallowance and reservation.
I think I can quote the parliamentary secretary. Of course, I cannot quote his exact words, but he said something of this sort, “we might want to use them in extraordinary circumstances.” Beyond the federalist profession of the faith by the parliamentary secretary who says that this is not the right way to go about constitutional reform, I believe I can detect in his remarks that fundamentally, deep in the backs of the minds of the federal government strategists, there are potentially devious intentions with respect to maintaining these powers of disallowance and reservation.
That said, the question we are asking on our side is this: why bother now with a partial, not to say purely cosmetic, amendment of a power that has fallen out of use because it has not been invoked in many decades? Another question came to mind: why not eliminate section 55 of the Constitution, which is in some ways a corollary to sections 56 and 57? Of course, wanting to understand the logic of our colleague from Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington, we checked with his office and this is the answer we got “Yes, of course, we want to make certain that the Queen cannot reverse a decision made by the Governor General in giving royal assent to a bill, but we do not want to strike out section 55 and thereby eliminate the link between Canada and the monarchy.” And there, there is a contradiction. If, for motives such as preservation or proclamation of Canada's sovereignty, they want to eliminate certain provisions in Canada's Constitution, it is surprising that they want to preserve section 55 because they want to maintain Canada's links with the monarchy.
That leads us to think that there appears to be a purely rhetorical use of the concept of sovereignty as an argument to justify a purely cosmetic constitutional amendment, namely, eliminating the powers of disallowance and reservation which are currently enshrined in the Constitution of Canada.
For the Bloc Québécois sovereignty is not just a purely rhetorical argument. In that sense, it is absolutely impossible for us to support this motion put forward by the member for Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington.
It is even more embarrassing to us that the constitution of a country is the fundamental pact governing that country. We are simply surprised, as Quebeckers, that this House focusses on cosmetic changes to the Constitution Act, 1867, patriated in 1982, while it does not seem at all concerned by the fact that Quebec is still excluded from the 1982 constitutional agreement. Not only is this a great aberration, but no one anywhere in Canada, and especially in this House, seems to care.
Here they want us to support part of what was the now defunct Charlottetown Accord. I remind my hon. colleague that we, sovereignists, virulently opposed the Charlottetown Accord and so did most Quebeckers. It did not do enough for Quebec. And now they would have us accept just a small part of the defunct Charlottetown Accord? It is absolutely out of the question for the Bloc Québécois to have anything to do with a piecemeal constitutional reform, albeit a purely cosmetic reform, when fundamental aberrations continue to exist.
The Bloc Québécois obviously opposes such an amendment to the Constitution Act of 1982, which Quebec has not ratified. I listened to the hon. member for Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington telling the House how strongly Pierre Elliot Trudeau was in favour of eliminating the power of disallowance and reservation. If he was all that favourable, he might have eliminated these provisions in 1982, when he imposed patriation of the Constitution. But he did not. This argument is purely rhetorical, once again.
If this House wants to bring the Constitution into line with the political reality of this country, Canada, it must do so with the seriousness and rigour it deserves. For us, it is not serious or rigorous to put MPs from the Bloc Québécois through minor, partial, cosmetic changes to this Constitution rejected by Quebec.
If we are to talk about the Constitution in this House, first and foremost, it must be recognized that Quebec is a nation. Need I remind the House that on September 23, 2003, this House rejected a motion to recognize Quebec as a nation. My hon. colleague from Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington was very pleased to vote against that motion that would have recognized Quebec as a nation.
I also want to remind the House that many of the provinces represented today by the Conservative Party members voted heavily against the Charlottetown Accord, which recognized Quebec's status not as a nation, but simply as a distinct society. It was too much to much to ask Canada to give Quebec status as a distinct society. We will not even be surprised by the fact that the member for Lanark—Frontenac—Lennox and Addington did not want to recognize Quebec's status as a nation, refusing to recognize, thereby, the evidence that Quebec truly is a nation.
Since the House of Commons continues, even today, to deny this obvious reality, that Quebec is a nation, and continues to deny the aspirations of the Quebec people, the Bloc Québécois finds that any constitutional discussions or amendments at this stage are quite futile. The only constitutional amendment we would be prepared to consider would be one seeking to recognize Quebec as a sovereign nation that could eventually be associated, politically and economically, with Canada.