Mr. Speaker, the choice of topic for my first intervention this fall was clear. I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude, affection, recognition and admiration for the timeless Guy Rocher, a man, a sociologist, a nation builder and an educator, at once so kind and so clear, who left us on September 3 at the age of 101.
Guy Rocher was the founder of Quebec's education system, the father of secularism in Quebec, the author of our Charter of the French Language, and a pioneer of our sociological tradition. He was a quiet revolutionary who laid the groundwork for everything we are as a people and for our distinct, legitimate and generous national identity.
On behalf of the Bloc Québécois, I would like to express my deepest condolences to Guy Rocher's loved ones. If not for his leadership, I doubt the noble pursuit of making Quebec a country in its own right would ever have come to be.
I am grateful to Mr. Rocher. He is no mere centenarian; history will render him eternal.