Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Minister, thank you very much for introducing such important measures.
Before I ask a couple of questions, Minister, I want to make it clear that I represent the most diversified riding, Calgary Northeast, and of course the hardest working as well. I know.
I want to make a comment on this title. When I hear that it is racist.... First of all, I have not heard from one single constituent that the title is racist. In my view as well, when we talk about forced marriage and child marriage, this is barbaric. You know that I'm an immigrant. In my motherland it is well known that they had the practice of child marriages and to an extent forced marriages as well. When I chose Canada, I chose for some reasons and I believe that the system is better than where I was.
I have a couple of questions. When you talked about introducing this bill, what information was known about the prevalence of forced and underage marriages in Canada? Does the Government of Canada provide any funding to organizations that help the victims?