Mr. Speaker, I must first point out that nothing would have been possible without the hard work done by the people who for many years doggedly pleaded this cause on behalf of the victims.
Many of those people are with us today, and I salute them.
I would also like to applaud the tireless efforts of our immigration and citizenship critic, the member for Vaudreuil-Soulanges, who is also of Chinese origin, and our candidate in the most recent election in LaSalle—Émard, May Chiu, who was actively involved in this struggle.
Congratulations and thank you to everyone for their dedication.
As you are no doubt aware, the Bloc Québécois has long criticized the Government of Canada's refusal to acknowledge the past injustices to the Chinese-Canadian community. The head tax and the discriminatory immigration policy that followed were heinous acts.
It is not too strong to speak of racism, as the Prime Minister did.
This discrimination was institutionalized in Canada.
I commend the Prime Minister's decision to apologize officially on behalf of the Government of Canada and the people of Canada.
On behalf of the Bloc Québécois and the people of Quebec, I join him and apologize sincerely to all the Quebeckers of Chinese origin for past errors.
The Prime Minister says that the purpose of his statement is to turn the page on an unfortunate period in Canada's past.
And to give greater weight to the government's apology, he announced that he will offer symbolic payments to head tax payers and the spouses of deceased head tax payers. I hope with all my heart that he will extend this compensation to the direct descendants of the victims of this policy.
It was high time the government acted. Once again, I congratulate the Prime Minister for keeping his word, and I ask him to act accordingly and think about the direct descendants of these victims.