Mr. Speaker, I usually rise to say I am pleased to participate in the debate on whatever bill is before us at the time but, in this case, I must say I am not so pleased to speak on a bill that is a direct attack on and which threatens the very existence of cultural and sports events, particularly in Quebec.
This is a bill befitting fundamentalists. All this time, we thought the rise of fundamentalism was centred in the Muslim world; we must recognize that we need not look any further than this place to find fundamental fundamentalism. The minister who introduced this bill that may well kill cultural events like the Montreal Jazz Festival and sports events like the Montreal Grand Prix car race is the same minister who, a little over one year ago, had the brilliant idea of legislating to prevent us from eating and producing raw milk cheese in Canada. There is a limit.
One would think this minister turned into the ayatollah of the House of Commons: he wants to run our lives, preventing us from doing this, that and the other. What kind of society will this make? Where are the ministers and members from Quebec when they see a minister from Atlantic Canada jeopardizing an important part of Montreal's economy? Where are they? Where is the Minister of Finance and member for LaSalle-Émard? He has been absent since the start of our debate on this issue and, every time it is raised, he runs away and hides in the back.
Where is the Minister of Labour and hon. member for Saint-Léonard, our great defender of parmesan cheese? When his parmesan cheese was attacked, he was outraged. Where is he today, while the Jazz Festival, the Just for Laughs Festival, the Montreal Grand Prix and the Trois-Rivières Grand Prix are being put on the line? Where is the great upholder of civil liberties? He is probably eating spaghetti sprinkled with parmesan cheese. He has traded away all the major cultural and sporting events held in Montreal-$30
million out of the $60 million spent by Canadian sponsors-, all that for a spoonful of parmesan cheese.
Where is the hon. member for Outremont and Secretary of State in charge of the Federal Office of Regional Development for Quebec? We do not hear him anymore. Where is the great defender of Montreal's economy? He is also in hiding. He has been brought to heel.
This is unacceptable. During the second mandate of the Trudeau government, there were 74 Liberal nitwits in the House and today we have a bunch of nitwits, Liberals again, who are afraid to get up and defend those who voted for them.
This is no small affair. They are jeopardizing events such as the Just for Laughs Festival, the Montreal Grand Prix, the Trois-Rivières Grand Prix, of which my colleague, the hon. member for Trois-Rivières, is an ardent supporter, the Montreal and Toronto film festivals, the Montreal and Vancouver jazz festivals, the Benson & Hedges International, the Players Tennis International, and many other cultural and sporting events which are held in Quebec and in Canada.
In Montreal alone, cultural events represent 2,000 jobs. Given the unemployment rate in Montreal right now, this is disgraceful. Quebec's Liberal members across the way, the 1996-97 crop, should be ashamed of themselves for not speaking up against this bill, for not asking the Atlantic Ayatollah to withdraw such an fundamentalist bill. Soon, Quebecers and Canadians will have to ask permission just to walk.
How could they introduce such a bill?
It reminds me of the measures taken during the prohibition. It is a return to a terrible ultra-conservatism that must be rejected. This government behaves like a dictatorship. It tells us what to eat, what to drink and what to listen to. Canadians have had enough of these absurd measures. This bill is totally and utterly ridiculous.
For the public to mobilize so quickly, as we saw yesterday and as we will see today in Montreal and in Toronto, this legislation has to be utterly ridiculous.
We are not talking about peanuts here. For the Montreal jazz festival, a $1.5 million sponsorship is at stake, at a time when the government is making deep cuts in the budgets for the poor and the unemployed. Now, it will put 2,000 people out of work in Montreal, just like that. This really takes the cake.
The same goes for the fireworks festival, which stands to lose a $1 million sponsorship. Where will organizers find the money? It will be the end of this event in Montreal. The Just for Laughs festival will also lose $1 million in sponsorships. And we all know that money does not grow on trees.
Through such a senseless bill, the government is cutting off funding for major events which generate up to $200 million in direct and indirect benefits. In the Montreal area alone, about $200 million a year and 2,000 jobs are at stake.
This is a second-rate fundamentalist government. Soon, because of the government's actions, Montreal's unemployment rate will continue to grow instead of decreasing. This is unacceptable.
Where is the Minister of Human Resources Development, the hon. member for Papineau-Saint-Michel, who makes it a point of honour to rise and supposedly stand up for Quebec? Where is when we are discussing this bill?
Our favourite constitutionalist minister-
