Mr. Speaker, I will be brief because I do not have much time left. I have two comments and one question.
My first comment has to do with the importance for the minister of maintaining the integrity of the judiciary, as he has said himself in his speech. This is why he decided against lodging a complaint in Michel Robert's case. However, his predecessor lodged one in 1996 in the case of Justice Bienvenue who had made discriminatory remarks against women and Jews. The then Minister of Justice is now Deputy Prime Minister.
My second comment has to do with the representation of minorities in the judiciary. Going back to the point made by the Minister of Justice and the member for Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, if this is so important, can the minister tell us how many judges are bilingual now, as was asked three times during the April 19, 2005 meeting of the Standing Committee on Official Languages?
In closing, the minister is always telling us that merit is the only argument or the only factor in the judicial appointment process. I have always believed that in politics, rhetoric has to be based on facts. If such is the case, how does he explain that 60% of the Quebec lawyers appointed to a judgeship at the federal level since 2000 have contributed money to the Liberal Party of Canada? If we restrict ourselves to private practice lawyers appointed to the bench, that percentage goes up to 72.4%.