Mr. Speaker, at an organization meeting held yesterday, 75 Canadian parliamentarians from all the political parties represented in both Houses set up a group of parliamentary friends of UNESCO.
This main objectives of this new parliamentary friendship group are to provide its members with more information on UNESCO programs throughout the world, particularly those that relate to North American realities, and to support Canada's participation in UNESCO, which includes taking part in the activities of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO.
The parliamentary group appointed an executive made up of eight members of Parliament and three senators. As chair of this new parliamentary friendship group, I am pleased to see the strong interest generated among our colleagues by this UNESCO contact group. We will now develop a plan of action to support UNESCO's major commitments in the areas of education, culture and science.