This has been a focal point for the Government of Canada and, quite frankly, for me personally. As a pediatric surgeon, the concept that any human right of a child would be violated is abhorrent. Canada itself has strongly condemned child, early, and forced marriages as a violation of basic human rights, and as a form of violence against girls in particular. Obviously, some boys are impacted by this as well, but it's primarily girls. As a foreign policy initiative this has been a priority area, and Canada is playing a leadership role on the international stage. We are the sponsor of the UN's International Day of the Girl Child on October 11, where we focus significantly on priority issues of girls' rights, and, obviously, the elimination and eradication of child, early, and forced marriages is at the top of that list. We also have had program funding support through the Minister of Foreign Affairs recently announcing $20 million to UNICEF for programming to end child, early, and forced marriages, and with Zambia we put forward the first-ever stand-alone resolution on child, early, and forced marriage at the UN General Assembly to move forward in eradicating this practice.
So the legislation that we're moving forward with, Bill S-7, is to go hand in glove in support of our international position on this that there should be a zero-tolerance policy with regard to these practices.