Mr. Speaker, I think that there are two parts to the question posed by my hon. colleague from the Canadian Alliance.
First, I think that, yes, more and more young men are interested in sharing in family responsibilities and their children rearing. I think that, slowly, attitudes are changing with regard to the sharing of family responsibilities.
However, in reality, according to Statistics Canada or all the data available for the provinces, and it seems true, about 7% of fathers, after the shock of a divorce or a separation—and it is as much a shock for women as for men—continue to be interested in responsibilities related to caring for their children. Caring for children means changing diapers, washing them, helping them with their homework and lessons, talking to them, and so on.
After a certain phase in their life and, I would even say, and this is a shame, once fathers have someone new in their lives, a new partner, they are no longer interested. Ninety percent of mothers shoulder alone the responsibility for their children.
The law leads to joint custody, but the father does not come around, he is no longer there, he is no longer interested. If he is interested, it is because, essentially, he feels perhaps guilty for not continuing the relationship. Perhaps he is interested because he feels that a relationship is important, but he spends less time with his child. That is when women's groups say “We could sit down together again and see if there were not some way of having a law reflecting reality that would benefit everyone”.