Mr. Speaker, I wish to advise the House of an unprecedented meeting of 24 inspirational Afghan women currently living in Canada that is proceeding in the West Block today with the help of the Minister for International Cooperation and CIDA officials.
These Afghan Canadian women, including high school students, have arrived from Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Guelph, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal to meet officials and parliamentarians to press us to ensure that our troops and other Canadian representatives are all committed to increasing safety for women and children in Afghanistan so Afghan women in Canada have the genuine option of returning to their country of origin to give their expertise to rehabilitation and reconstruction as soon as possible.
I give special thanks to Senator Jaffer, Adeena Niazi and Marilou McPhedran for their leadership in this program.