Mr. Speaker, children around the world disappear every day. They may be runaways, victims of a family kidnapping, or they may simply be lost.
Today, we mark International Missing Children's Day. As the father of two young children, I cannot imagine the pain and despair caused by the disappearance of a child.
In Canada, there are more than 47,000 missing children.
In my riding of Pontiac, two young Algonquin girls from the first nations reserve of Kitigan Zibi, Shannon Alexander and Maisy Odjick, went missing on September 10, 2008. Ten years later, their community is still searching, because a community will never stop searching for a missing child.
I encourage all Canadians to visit the website “Canada's Missing” at disparus-Canada.ca and learn about cases still being investigated.
It is our responsibility to do everything we can to ensure the safe return of our missing children.
One missing child is one missing child too many.