44th Parl. 1st Sess.
March 1, 2022 10:00AM
- Mar/1/22 10:17:40 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, despite the temptation to do otherwise, I will try to maintain what little positive atmosphere we have here. I understand that the member's question was written before he rose and before he even heard the opening of my brief speech.
Of course members will say that now is not the right time. It is never the right time. It will never be the right time for the Quebec nation to have more influence.
However, it is always the right time. In fact, there is no better time, given my colleague's shameful reference to Ukraine. I say “shameful” because we are talking about the right to self-determination, a legitimate right. Self-determination is acquired, but it also must be defended, and Quebec is in an excellent position, as a nation, to tell Ukraine that we stand with them in friendship and solidarity.
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- Mar/1/22 11:16:51 a.m.
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Madam Speaker, I wonder whether my colleague recognizes that Canada is a federation and that it is a contract, not a nation.
It is a contract reached initially between two nations, the French nation and the English nation. I am not ignoring the indigenous nations that were already on the territory, or the many other nations that joined us afterwards at different times and through different means. In the beginning, the Canadian federation was made up of two nations.
Does my colleague not recognize that, because of this, we need to maintain the viability of the two nations in the federation, if we do not want to confront Quebec’s fight for independence, which has long been on the table?
We do not want to cease to exist, and we wanted to be members of the federation. I personally never wanted it, but that is another story. At a certain point in time, we believed that we wanted to be members of the federation, and being members means preserving our identity.
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- Mar/1/22 12:03:21 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague from New Westminster—Burnaby for his speech.
I am thanking him now because, as of this morning, he seems to be in agreement with our motion on this opposition day. I assume that the New Democrats will vote in favour of the motion. That is interesting, but I would like to take this further.
When we talk about Quebec’s political weight, it is important to truly recognize the fact that Quebec is a nation. My colleague spoke a lot about the Liberals and Conservatives. As we know, in 2006, the Conservatives passed a motion recognizing the Quebec nation, but they have done nothing since then. No concrete action was taken by the Conservatives to follow up on the recognition of the Quebec nation.
I would like to know how far my colleague is prepared to go to recognize the Quebec nation. Should the government go as far as to implement standards virtually everywhere and to interfere in certain jurisdictions? How far is he prepared to go to recognize the Quebec nation?
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- Mar/1/22 12:34:01 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my hon. colleague from Jonquière for his passionate and fascinating speech. I will not be making any comments about his weight.
He talked a lot about the importance of nationalism and the fact that it should not be seen as looking inward. I would also like to hear him talk about the fact that we are here for one thing.
Nationalism is fine, but until independence has been achieved, and until we are a country, we have a vested interest in being here to defend our interests.
Nationalism is one step, it protects us, but it leads us to something much greater for the Quebec nation.
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- Mar/1/22 1:29:15 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Outremont for her question.
I do not want to speak for all my colleagues, but I dare to imagine that the only thing that would satisfy the Bloc Québécois is Quebec's independence. We sit in the House of Commons because Parliament exists in Canada. I send my taxes to Ottawa and of course I want Quebec to be free to benefit from them as it sees fit. When we ask that our nation, which has been recognized, retain its political weight, that is only a half measure. It already makes sense and it should make sense for parliamentarians and for the government.
Of course, we will always want more, because we want a country.
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- Mar/1/22 4:09:15 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I want to look back in time, to 1995. At the time, Jean Chrétien was Prime Minister and the House had recognized Quebec as a distinct society. Mr. Chrétien asked in the House for the government to take that into account in all of its decisions.
Since the House reiterated last June that Quebec is a nation, would it not be time, in light of today's debate, to take Quebec's nationhood into account in the decisions that we must take?
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- Mar/1/22 5:07:00 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, I thank the member for Edmonton for his suggestion.
Quebec is willing to recognize a nation from its inception. A nation sets itself apart through, and is defined by, its language, which reflects its culture.
We are fully willing to recognize other cultures, nations and languages. We have always been in favour of that.
I welcome his suggestion.
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