Mr. Speaker, I will pick up where I left off. To summarize, this happened after the Premier of Quebec and the mayor of Montreal asked the federal government to provide them with the tools they needed to support the province during the crisis.
I also mentioned the importance of pointing out that the police and the army were under the responsibility of the Quebec department of justice, not under the responsibility of the federal government. Leadership involves making a decision based on the facts and data available at a given time. It is easy, 50 years later, to wonder if the right decision was made. The federal government received a request and offered its support.
I would like to raise another aspect that is also very important. Exactly two months after the crisis, in December, in a survey of respondents from across Canada, 89% of anglophones said they supported the use of the War Measures Act, and 86% of francophones said the same thing. This demonstrates that the government acted as it should have. This is what Canadians clearly showed.
I will draw a little analogy. When someone is drowning and cries out for help, we come to their rescue.
I would now like to make a connection with COVID-19. We are in a new crisis. We had the first wave, and now we are in the second wave. Once again, the governments of Quebec and Ontario asked for support. We provided $19 billion to support Canada’s health care system. We provided $2 billion for education. We then offered the support of the Canadian Armed Forces, which helped out in seniors' residences in the two provinces in question, Ontario and Quebec. We deployed that resource.
It is very important to set the record straight. This day should have been a time to honour the victims, to think about Pierre Laporte's family, as well as those who faced challenges. It is an opportunity to acknowledge what these people went through.
What really bothers me is that the Bloc seems to want to rewrite history in order to create partisan divisions between the parties. The Liberal Party is here to help Canadians. During the pandemic, we have been there for Canadians. We are still here to help them, and we will still be tomorrow. We will make sure that the federal government can support all Canadians across this country.