Mr. Speaker, I have many personal beliefs. Unfortunately when trying to apply universal protection to the rights of all individuals, especially children and youth across the country, there is a very small area for my own beliefs. I believe we must provide protection for young people. However my opinion about Mr. Sharpe and whether in an isolated incident something should or should not happen is all academic to me.
We must be unceasing in our attempts to protect children. I know my hon. colleague feels the same way. We must continue what we have been doing, especially with respect to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Canada cannot stand alone in this. There must be uniformity across the country and across the world for the protection of children. When we undertake something federally we do not do it on our own. Enforcement is generally carried out at the provincial level.
My hon. colleague wants me to speak to the age of consent. There are many issues I could raise with regard to that but I will avoid it. However if there are incidents of abuse of children they must be examined carefully. As hon. members will notice, everyone is concerned about the rights of the child and protecting children. It is not about other things. We cannot make good legislation or provide good amendments for existing legislation by using isolated incidents. That is not the way to make proper and universally applied laws to protect children.