Senator Carignan: Apparently the issues don’t really affect francophones, and they don’t fundamentally affect the Atlantic provinces either. Not one of the 11 committee members comes from the four Atlantic provinces. Again, the Liberals are treating people from Atlantic Canada as second-class citizens, whereas five committee members are from Ontario. I know that during the previous rounds of committee appointments, two senators from Atlantic Canada were put forward as candidates but were rejected by the Prime Minister. Was that because those senators were Conservatives?

Hon. Claude Carignan: My question is also about the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians. Leader, I note that only one of the 11 members is francophone. That is less than 10%, even though francophones make up more than 20% of Canadian society. I know that the Prime Minister has been approached about appointing francophone senators and has turned them down. Was it because these senators were Conservatives?