Madam Speaker, the second petition, e-petition 3412, was signed by more than 600 Canadians, and it asks for the government to support Alexis Smecher, who has not seen his young daughter since November 2019, after she was abducted and taken to Paraguay by her mother despite a B.C. court order requiring joint parenting. Unfortunately, this case is but one example among dozens where parents are denied their parental rights and contact with their children as a result of international abductions.
The signatories call on the government to engage directly with Paraguay and with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to get Mr. Smecher's daughter brought back to Canada expeditiously, to offer him every assistance and to keep him informed of the progress on his case.