Madam Speaker, one member says it is made up. This reinforces the attitude we heard yesterday, that CBC has no credibility from the Conservative Party's perspective. Canadians would disagree, especially if we factor in that it is not only CBC.
CBC says:
After two years of [the leader of the Conservative Party] as their leader, many Conservative MPs say they are much less free now than they were before his arrival.
The man who promised during his leadership run to make Canada ‘the freest country in the world’ maintains tight control over the actions of his caucus members.
When we talk about Radio One and the French language, this is why the people of Quebec, and in fact the people of all of Canada, should be concerned. We should remember that this is a pet peeve of the leader of the Conservative Party. It is a personal, vindictive attitude that he has toward CBC, and he wants it defunded.
Here is what Conservatives are actually saying about their leader: “He's the one who decides everything. His main adviser is himself.... The people around him are only there to realize the leader's vision.” This is not me saying it and it is not CBC; it is reliable, numerous sources that have been canvassed in regard to the Conservatives and Conservative members of Parliament.
That is why I say that public policy at the national level matters. The French language today is spoken more than it ever has been, and it is because of a national government. It was a government of Pierre Elliott Trudeau that had a vision of Canada, and we are realizing the results of that vision today.
This is why I wanted to be able to address it by using me as an example. If only the policy would have been in place during the 1950s and going into the 1960s, I suspect I would be addressing the House in French as opposed to in English right now. I would suggest that this is why we need to be aware of the fact of what is behind the motivation and the hidden agenda of the far-right Conservative Party today.
That is something I would like to encourage all Canadians to get an understanding of: who it is that the leader of the Conservative Party is. We often talk about the cuts, and those cuts can easily be substantiated in terms of the allegations that are coming from this side, and not only from Liberals. We also see them from members of the Bloc, as well as the Greens and the New Democrats, all of whom are expressing concerns about the types of cuts the Conservative Party of Canada is actually talking about.
I said I wanted to speak a bit about the motivation, because that is a very important aspect of why we are actually using this particular concurrence report for debate today. Look at the report itself. It is not very complicated; it is pretty straightforward. This is what the Conservative Party wanted to debate today: “That the committee report to the House its deep condemnation of the CBC using a Paris-based audio studio to record a podcast, choosing it over a Quebecois-based recording studio to avoid the Quebec accent.”
I share the concern that is being expressed in the report. I would like to think that all members would share in that concern, but it begs the question of why the Conservative Party would move this particular motion today. There are literally hundreds of motions on the tabling of reports that could in fact be brought forward, yet the Conservatives singled it out as the one they wanted to debate today.
We should ask ourselves why it is doing that. I cannot recall the Conservative Party ever, in years, using an opposition day motion to talk about the French language. If it is such an important issue, why has it not done that? It has not once that I can recall; if I am wrong, members can please stand up and let me know. I suspect I am not. Maybe 10 or 12 years ago it might have; I do not know 100%.
I found out just 30 minutes ago that the Conservatives have decided to talk about this particular issue, so do not try to be misled, and I say this whether to the people of Quebec or Canadians as a whole who have a passion and care about French language and want to ensure its preservation, promotion and growth. These things are not going to come from the Conservative Party of Canada; they are going to come from a continuation of Pierre Elliott Trudeau and the type of policies that we have brought forward as a Liberal government.
I very much want to see the Conservative Party actually take a look at how they are playing such a destructive role here on the floor of the House of Commons. It is truly amazing. In fairness to the Conservative members, I can appreciate, based on the story, that they do not really have much of a choice. They have to follow what the leader tells them to do, and there are a number of quotes I can use.
Tomorrow is caucus day, so the Conservatives need to start holding their own leader to account. What are we at now? It is six weeks and counting of the Conservative filibuster. The Conservatives try to pass the blame. They say to do this and do that and then we will be able to do government business. That is just not true. The filibuster is a multi-million dollar game in order to support the self-interest of the Conservative leader.
That is what this is all about, and at the end of the day, I would suggest that we need to recognize that this is the very same leader who orchestrated Stephen Harper's being found in contempt of Parliament. The game we are witnessing day in and day out from the Conservative Party today is not only a massive waste of financial resources but it is also preventing substantive debates from being able to occur. The leader of the Conservative Party is putting his personal interests ahead of the interests of Canadians, and that needs to stop.
I would like to introduce an amendment. I move that the motion be subamended by deleting all the words after the words “so as to recommend that the government” and substituting the following: “expresses its deep concern for the Conservative Party of Canada's threat to cut all funding to CBC and Radio-Canada, which would leave millions of Canadians living in official language minority communities without reliable news coverage in their language of choice.”
It is a good amendment and I hope all members will be voting for it. We will be watching the Conservatives in particular.