Mr. Speaker, it is a great honour for me to rise to present a petition with many thousands of signatures from all across Canada. It is presented to us by Kim Plewes who is director of the Oakville chapter of Kids Can Free the Children.
The petitioners point out that the problem of child labour is a great concern and it is getting worse. Some 250 million children worldwide are child labourers. Approximately 80,000 children enter into the workforce daily and every one of these children who is forced into child labour is emotionally, verbally, physically, psychologically, intellectually and spiritually affected.
These petitioners call upon parliament to take action to ensure the enforcement of the United Nations convention on the rights of the child, particularly articles 28, 32 and 34, and article 182 of the ILO convention, at home and around the world.