These are children who are in another country because they were taken there by one of the parents.
However, if the other parent stayed here, in Canada, and wants the child to be returned home to them, their primary tool is the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. Unfortunately, only 75 countries have signed it to date.
For children, as my colleague said, our team, which has grown in recent months, deals with each situation, because they are all different. As well, we are trying to make a more comprehensive effort. This involves three aspects.
The first consists of making major efforts to encourage countries that have not signed the Convention to do so. At present, we are making a lot of effort to persuade Japan, which accounts for about 50 cases. To date, Japan has not been interested, but now, with the change of government, we are thinking that Japanese policy might change. The first aspect is therefore to encourage countries that can sign the Convention to do so.
The second aspect is this. Some countries that have signed the Convention don't have the resources to meet their obligations under the Convention. In some cases, we provide technical assistance so they can honour their obligations.
The third aspect is the most difficult. These are countries that, for domestic and legal reasons, cannot or will not sign the Convention. A majority of those countries are Islamic countries, where Islamic law is the national law. The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction involves a process called the Malta Process, which is being used to establish a dialogue with the Islamic countries.
More recently, about six months ago, a small group was created with half the countries signatories to the Convention and the other half Islamic countries. There are six countries. Canada chairs the working group of signatory countries and Pakistan chairs the working group of Islamic countries. They have met by conference call to try to identify mediation methods that could be recognized by both jurisdictions and could solve these kinds of problems. The work has only just begun. As well, not just government experts, but non-governmental experts like Louise Filion of Montreal, who is a leading expert in this area of mediation, are being consulted. There is also Justice Jacques Chamberland of the Quebec Superior Court, who is our specialist on the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of Child Abduction.
Essentially, this is "macro level" work, because this kind of work has to be done to deal with principles and find ways of solving cases.