I worked at the National Assembly, as you said, I also worked with Mr. Ryan to restore peace where language was concerned. We established measures that are still in force and were complied with by the Parti Québécois government. We did the work we had to do. I assure you that, if I had the least doubt that this legislation threatened Bill 101 or the other protective measures that Quebec needs to have in place, I would not be here before you trying to convince you that it does not threaten Quebec's priorities.
As for excluding Quebec from the implementation of part VII, I do not believe that Quebec would agree, to be honest. Why not? Because it would also mean excluding Quebec's anglophone minority from the discussion. I don't think that anyone, yourself included, would wish that to happen.
That said, federal statutes—as I said earlier—include the obligation to take this into account. In our system, the majority of provincial legislation is always taken into account when it comes to respecting minority rights or protecting minorities in any area. This means that Bill 101, which applies to Quebec and protects French in that province, and also protects the French-language community in the Americas, will always be taken into account. Should it come to a challenge before the courts, Bill 101 will be taken into account by the Supreme Court, because the Supreme Court has always done so.
So it would be redundant to specify that this legislation must not infringe upon areas of provincial jurisdiction. You can discuss the issue, but the requisite provision is already in place.
That said, when we say “may take”, we mean there is an obligation to consult, and the first parties that should be consulted are the provinces. We cannot achieve anything if the provinces are not full partners in the enforcement agreements. If Quebec had not been a front-line partner at this stage, among other things in education agreements, we would not be here signing the protocol, particularly since Quebec's Minister of Education is president of the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada.
We cannot do anything if the provinces are not our partners. That has to be taken into account, and that is something we all have to apply to ourselves. The process, not the result, must be justiciable, because if the result is justiciable, then we come back to spending power.