Mr. Speaker, I have been in this House for 13 years—in fact, I entered into my 14th year yesterday—and I have always been very cautious in my speeches. I will answer the hon. member, but he might not like my answer.
I do not know if that is contempt, but one thing that is certain is that there is a lack of understanding that some might take for contempt. I will leave it at that. The government does not understand the tools official languages minority communities need. I belong to those communities.
I had the honour to be the minister responsible for official languages. I have also been parliamentary secretary to the minister responsible for official languages. I had the chance to see all the issues first hand and to realize the importance of certain tools. One of those tools, which is really indispensable, indisputable and essential to the promotion and the development of the rights of those communities was the court challenges program. However, it has been abolished by the government whose only explanation was that it was a waste of money. That is totally unrealistic. One can only conclude that the government does not understand the situation.
I will give another argument. Once or twice already, three times with today's motion, there were votes in this House where a majority of elected representatives of the Canadian population asked the government to re-establish the court challenges program. But the government simply does not care about the will of the majority of elected representatives of the people. It also shows a lack of respect and a lack of transparency and also disrespect for democracy and for the will of the majority of democratically elected members of Parliament.
One can wonder: is it contempt? I will let others answer that question, but there is certainly a profound lack of understanding and a great insensitivity on the part of the Conservative government towards minority communities.