Mr. Speaker, first I want to congratulate my colleague from Ottawa—Vanier on his excellent speech and on the work he does to ensure that minorities across this country have their rightful place in our society.
My colleague talked about the court challenges program. Clearly the Conservative government has absolutely no understanding of the needs of minority communities. Sometimes we think that it will finally understand, reason and see the light at the end of the tunnel. But it is not happening. It even seems to be getting worse.
Let us look at the situation. The government cancelled the court challenges program. Those most affected by this decision are francophone communities outside Quebec, francophone minorities. We wanted to believe that maybe it would end there, but it does not. It makes us wonder whether the Conservative government despises francophones.
In fact, we just learned that no mention is made of the national holiday of Quebeckers on June 24 on the Treasury Board and finance department calendars. The government does not even have enough respect to ensure that this holiday appears on its calendars, as well as Acadian Day, August 15, which is even worse. Yet other holidays appear on its calendars. The government does not even respect these communities. It despises them.
In examining the situation, we realize that maybe what we are seeing here is just the Conservative philosophy. Imagine if this government had a majority: a Conservative philosophy that favours eliminating the rights of francophone minority communities, a Conservative philosophy that breeds contempt for francophones.
I wonder if the member for Ottawa—Vanier agrees with that. It is not only one thing, but several things that have been happening one after the other. The Conservatives keep blaming others, but they alone are responsible for the contempt they feel for francophones outside Quebec.