Thank you, Madam Speaker. Madam Speaker, a lot of attention is appropriately paid, in this Assembly and elsewhere, to the aboriginal people, their cultures and language. Today I would like to talk a little bit about the language and culture of the qallunaaq, the non-native people, especially certain phrases used in our language. Today I want to talk about the English language. I was once a student of English, you may have noticed.

---Laughter

And I've been observing the influence of our language on the proceedings of this Assembly. What you should know about our culture, the qallunaaq culture, is that sometimes, or maybe I should say very often, we qallunaaqs say the exact opposite of what we really mean.

I'll give a few examples. In court, when lawyers want to ridicule their opponent's argument, they refer to the other lawyer as "my learned friend," or where the other is really off the wall, "my esteemed learned friend."

An equivalent has developed in this House, Madam Speaker. When a Member wishes to disagree with an honourable Member, especially when it is an ordinary Member who has the gall to criticize the Minister, you will sometimes hear the phrase -- and sometimes I use this phrase myself, but quite rarely -- "with respect." If the Minister has said something really ridiculous...