moved that Bill C-254, an act to amend the Interpretation Act (convention on the rights of the child) be read the second time and referred to a committee.
Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to bring forward this bill on behalf of all Canadian children. It amends the Interpretation Act to provide that every act of Parliament shall be construed and applied as not to abrogate, abridge or infringe any of the rights recognized in the convention on the rights of the child. It is as close as a private member's bill can come to introducing a children's bill of rights.
At the World Summit for Children, held at the United Nations in 1990, 71 world leaders, the largest gathering of world leaders ever, discussed actions that could better the lives of children throughout the world. As a result of that summit, the United Nations developed the convention on the rights of the child which Canada ratified on December 13, 1991.
I am proud to say that Canada took an active role in the summit and in helping to develop the convention which provides us with a set of standards that confirms the respect our society
gives its youngest and most vulnerable and recognizes that they need special safeguards and care.
Responsibility for implementing the rights set out in the convention is shared by federal, provincial and territorial governments. International human rights conventions, even if ratified by Canada, do not automatically become part of domestic law. Canadian courts do, however, frequently refer to them in interpreting and applying domestic law and, in particular, in interpreting and applying the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
This private member's bill, if passed, would require the Government of Canada to interpret all legislation in harmony with the UN declaration on the rights of the child, which, as I say, Canada was instrumental in engineering. Essentially Canada's laws will comply with the convention.
Canada must continue to be a leading force in protecting children's rights both at home and around the world. In order to do that we must ensure that our international commitments are treated seriously and that federal legislation complies with the convention that the government signed on behalf of all Canadians.
The world summit and the convention were both predicated on the notion that children should have first call on the nation's resources in both good times and bad. In other words, Canada and the other countries that signed the convention should put children first at all times.
A year before the summit, in November 1989, the House debated a motion in the following words:
That this House express its concern for the more than one million Canadian children currently living in poverty and seek to achieve the goal of eliminating poverty among Canadian children by the year 2000.
The motion was unanimously passed by the members of the House of Commons.
At that time there were approximately 956,000 children under the age of 18 living in poverty. The subcommittee on poverty proceeded some time after that to address the problem, but did nothing very much to improve the situation of child poverty.
Looking at the shocking reality of what has happened since, the situation has worsened. Recently, Statistics Canada showed that in 1993 child poverty reached a 14-year high, despite the fact that the Canadian economy had made a modest recovery. In 1993 almost 1.5 million Canadian children, which is one in five, lived in some deprivation. Many of these children live not just in poverty, but are very poor. Clearly that is unacceptable. With only five years left until the year 2000 it is clear that the government must move quickly or the 1989 House of Commons resolution will be nothing more than empty words.
Last year I tried to move the same motion but was refused support from at least the Reform Party and possibly others. In other words, we have regressed in terms of our commitment to Canadian children since 1989.
The bill would go a long way to ensuring that the issue of child poverty and children's rights will be addressed. However, it will do more. It will ensure that the nation's children should always be put first, that they will be given the protection and assistance they need in order to grow to become happy, healthy and productive adults. It will enforce the concept that Canadian children be free from exploitation and abuse; that government action should be interpreted with regard to children in the best interests of the child; that children should have access to child care, health care and a standard of living that, at minimum, meets basic needs; and that disabled children should receive the same level of dignity and opportunity as other children.
If we are going to put words into action, if we are going to do anything other than spout empty words, it is vital that the commitments which Canada has made on behalf of its children to the world community are enforced by the government.
I would like to refer to some of the provisions and point out some of the problems that are faced in Canada with regard to the international commitment made when the UN convention was signed and when Canada committed itself to ensuring that children have the first call on resources.
A provision in article 6 says that Canada and other nations shall ensure, to the maximum extent possible, the survival and development of the child. Canada has 1.5 million children living in poverty. Clearly we are a long way from recognizing and enforcing the commitment which we made to our children and to the world economy. Article 17 of the convention talks about education, clearly a core element in the development of our children.
In that article there is provision that Canada and other nations encourage the production and dissemination of children's books. After many attempts in the last Parliament to remove the GST from children's books, which the last government recognized as being detrimental to educational expectations, that GST still remains on books and this government has done nothing to reduce it. There are measures we can take there to ensure that the commitment we made with regard to education and the dissemination of education can be met.
In article 18, Canada and all other nations agreed to take all appropriate measures "to ensure that children of working parents have the right to benefit from child care services and facilities for which they are able". We have seen the reneging of commitments with regard to child care, commitments that were in the red book. Over the years we have seen a clear derogation
on the part of the Government of Canada to respond in a critical way for the protection and benefit of children as well of course for those parents who need to work in order to maintain their families. With regard to child care, the government clearly is also not responding to the spirit and words of the convention.
Canada also agreed to take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect children from all forms of physical and mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse. The cuts to social programs, which continue under this government in spite of the aggressive opposition to the same cuts when this government was in opposition, mean that we cannot effectively say that we are responding positively to this provision of the convention either. We are not taking all appropriate legislative, administrative, social, and educational measures to protect children in this way. Indeed, we are going backwards.
There are special provisions in article 23 to respond to the special needs of disabled children. In particular, it indicated that we commit ourselves to assistance that will be designed to ensure that the disabled child has effective access to and receive education, training, health care services, rehabilitation services, preparation for employment and recreation opportunities in a manner conducive to the child's achieving the fullest possible social integration and individual development, including his or her cultural and spiritual development.
We all know from our own experiences across this country that we are far from responding positively to the needs of disabled children.
In article 24 we have a commitment to recognize the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health and to facilities for the treatment of illness and rehabilitation of health. This government once again follows the Tories in cutting funding to health care, clearly making it more and more difficult for children to receive access to the highest attainable standard of health care, which this country committed itself to providing. Again, we are in breach of this convention.
In regard to the pursuit of health care facilities for children, we agreed to combat disease and malnutrition, including within the framework of primary health care. Clearly, with 1.5 million children we have not addressed the concerns of malnutrition. Indeed, as those numbers increase we make it clear that we are going backwards rather than forward.
With regard to social programs, Canada and the other countries recognized for every child the right to benefit from social security, including social insurance, and to take the necessary measures to achieve the full realization of this right. Once again, we have not responded to that obligation. We have been cutting social programs at the federal level, and many provinces have also cut their social programs, I might add, although not the provinces of Ontario, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia, which are NDP provinces.
With regard to article 27, we agreed to recognize the right of every child to a standard of living adequate for the child's physical, mental, spiritual, moral, and social development. Again, the fact that we have 1.5 million children living in poverty makes it clear that we have done nothing to deal with this question in the last budget. Again we saw the government renege on its commitment dealing with child poverty.
In article 28 we see a commitment on the part of Canada to recognize the right of a child's education and in particular to make higher education accessible to all on the basis of capacity by every appropriate means. We again see cuts to post-secondary education funding in this budget of 10 per cent, the 10 per cent reduction on the health and social transfer. Again, how can we possibly be said to be responding to these international commitments when we make these cuts? Not only are we not responding to these commitments that we made, but of course we are undermining our ability to be competitive in the world economy in the future.
We also have agreed to take measures to encourage regular attendance in school and the reduction of drop-out rates. There is much we need to do in order to address this particular problem. Again, we need a concerted full effort to address our drop-out problem.
We have a commitment in article 23 to recognize the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's education or to be harmful to the child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development. We have yet to take effective measures to bar the importation of products made by child labour in countries where that child labour is also illegal. I only need to point out the issue of carpets to know that we have not done all we could do in that regard.
We also have committed ourselves under article 34 to undertake to protect the child from exploitive use in prostitution and other unlawful sexual practices. Anyone who spends any time in any of our inner cities will know that there are many children who are participating in the sex trade, again flowing from poverty, flowing from a loss of hope, things this government and this country should be able to do something about.
There are provisions dealing with some changes this House made, against the wishes of the New Democratic Party, with regard to the Young Offenders Act. Canada made commitments with regard to young offenders in the convention. Among other things, we committed ourselves to making imprisonment of a child a matter of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time. In flagrant disregard for that commitment, this
House not very long ago increased sentences for young offenders.
Last, Canada recognized under article 40 the right of every child alleged as, accused of, or recognized as having infringed the criminal law to be treated in a manner consistent with the promotion of the child's sense of dignity and worth, which reinforces the child's respect for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of others and which takes into account the child's age and the desirability of promoting the child's integration and the child's assuming a constructive role in society.
Again, the changes this Parliament made, contrary to the wishes of the New Democratic Party and all those experts on children, flies in the face of this commitment too.
In closing, I would like to say that what is being asked for here in this bill and what I am asking on behalf of all Canadian children is that this House recognize the commitments Canada made on behalf of all Canadians among its international peers to commit resources to children, to put children at the first call of Canada's resources, and to respond to the specific provisions contained in the convention.
Canada has a long way to go. Indeed, I think we have gone in the opposite direction. It would be important if we made a change in direction, if we put children first and if we kept our word to the international community on behalf of our children.
Mr. Speaker, while this bill was not granted votable status in the committee, I wonder if I might ask for unanimous consent for it to be votable, in which case it could then be votable at some later stage.
