We most certainly do have specific numbers. There are indeed wrecks of nine Canadian warships in Canadian territorial waters and wrecks of 10 Canadian flag merchant ships in Canadian territorial waters. At the moment, no legislation regulates the access of persons with ill intent to take souvenirs from these ships. Because of the exemption of warships under international maritime law, there has to be national law to deal with this issue. This is what France has done and this is what Britain has done, to the extent that both France and Britain, founding nations of Canada, have agreed...and in the case of the French, they have done it. They have extended their existing laws to Canadian ships. The Government of Canada, and Canadians as a whole, have done nothing.
My concern from the beginning, and it will continue for as long as I live, is for those young Canadian sailors whose lives were taken from them and who now lie at the bottom of the oceans entombed in the ships they were serving in. I don't care about the ships themselves. I am very concerned about the fact that there is no respect and no regard paid to these young people, as there is in cemeteries generally. With respect to legislation with regard to cemeteries, in Ontario there is only one law, and that's the Cemeteries Act. Basically it says to keep off, and if you don't, we'll report you to the Department of Veterans Affairs. There's one law; that's it.