Mr. Speaker, I understand the parliamentary secretary’s comments and I am somewhat in agreement with him.
In answer to his first comment, I will tell him that the Bloc Québécois agrees with increasing protection for children if we have to raise the age of consent for sexual relationships to do that. We agree, but this must not be the only thing we do. There are other things that have to be done, guidance that must be provided that will ensure that we are not merely going to criminalize sexual relationships or activity between young people.
That is not the only objective. The objective of the bill is to provide additional protection so that we can combat the exploitation of vulnerable individuals in our society. That is the reason why we support the bill in principle, but more than just this will have to be done. More than fine words, and more than a law, is going to be needed. We need a law that will let the whole world know that Canada will not tolerate sexual tourism here. However, we will also have to take it a step farther and work on education.
My final comments are to reiterate to the parliamentary secretary that it is not enough for the Minister of Justice to draft a bill and table it and have an amendment made; his colleagues—the Minister of Healthand others—who are concerned about sexual relationships or sexual activity on the part of young people will have to put some money into it, to ensure we are all able to protect young people from unwanted sexual relationships.
There will have to be considerable education done, because it is fine to protect young people, but they need to be told that they have this protection. I am thinking, for example, of sexual coercion practised by 17- and 18-year-olds against 14-, 15- or 16-year-old runaways. This will absolutely have to be fleshed out over the next few months. We are going to try to do this, and we will be able do it, at the Standing Committee on Justice, by listening to the people who appear before us. They will be asked to answer our questions, and to provide their guidance and expertise to assist in putting this law in place.