Mr. Speaker, today is the 10th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
1989 was also the year that the House of Commons voted unanimously to pass a motion by NDP leader Ed Broadbent to eradicate child poverty by the year 2000.
These are noble concepts, but how have we fared when it comes to putting words into action? In 1989, 14% of Canadian children lived in poverty. In 1999, that figure is 21%, an increase of 50%.
Internationally, Canada still refuses to sign ILO Convention No. 138, prohibiting labour by children under 14 years of age. It refuses to ban the importation of goods made by child labour. It refuses to push for rigid labour standards in international trade agreements.
In summary, we are not doing that well in living up to the spirit of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. It seems that if we starve one child we can be thrown into jail for child abuse, but if we deprive 1.5 million kids of the basic needs to survive, the government calls it balancing the budget and it might even get a person elected as prime minister.