Mr. Speaker, I am not going spend a great deal of time on this, but it is such an important issue. As has already been mentioned, it is a non-partisan issue, and we want to be on the record as supporting it.
All of us as parents and friends of those who have children realize how important it is to keep family units together. In a great country like Canada where the family is such an important unit, perhaps it is even more true than anywhere else.
When we think that families can be divided because one or other decides to leave and go back to his or her place of former residence, or perhaps just to take off and take one or more of the children, we all realize the impact it has on the family and on our community generally.
Our country, our government, should take whatever steps we can at an international level to ensure that other countries feel the same way as we do. In the agreements we sign we should make sure that in the event these happenings occur, which they should not, we can quickly move on them without having to see people go through devastating experiences. I am thinking of the book written by Betty Mahmoody, Not Without My Daughter . Those of us who have read it or seen the movie understand what that family went through. Certainly we all have our own examples.
Just a couple of years ago in the St. John's area a father took his three young children and disappeared. It is has been a couple of years. No one knows where they have gone, if they are still in the country or have left the country. It has had a devastating effect on the family and certainly on the community generally.
Canada is melting pot of nationalities. Because of that many of our younger people marry people who come from other countries and sometimes, if things do not work out, they leave. Occasionally they have taken the children, which has caused tremendous grief. It is interesting that in many of the cases where young people have been abducted security forces at airports have had concerns that something was wrong but did not have the proof or the authority to do anything about it.
Those of us who have travelled extensively over the years remember that the times when we went to airports and the first prominent people standing around were members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. It might be worth while asking if we have been too lax in airport security. I know we have good people checking our suitcases and frisking us. That is all wonderful, but many things go through airports that cannot be detected by a scanner, whether they be hand-held or otherwise.
Professional people understand and identify problems. Looking for signs is important. There is an old saying that forewarned is forearmed. Perhaps we could tighten up the security, even if it means having the RCMP again playing a prominent role at airports. The extra cost is very little in comparison with the grief caused to too many families. As I say, because of our international involvement and the type of country we have, we are susceptible to such things happening.
As we move ahead in this regard, it is not something we should only deal with if a meeting happens to be called somewhere along the line. It is an issue Canada should push and should keep pushing until we get everyone agreeing with us.
Many people agree with us. Sometimes the more people come together, the more others are embarrassed not to do so. Despite their own national concerns about family units and how they operate and whatever, surely there is no one anywhere in the world who would deny the right of children to be with their parents, certainly the ones most responsible for looking after them.
We certainly support the measure and ask the government to do everything in its power to make sure that abductions of Canada's children end.