Statement made on 20 November 2008 by Senator Terry Mercer
Hon. Terry M. Mercer:
Honourable senators, today is National Child Day. As in previous years, my colleague Senator Munson and I will host an event in this chamber on Monday, welcoming over 200 school children to celebrate their day. We are happy this year to have Senator Cochrane helping us to organize this event.
Landon Pearson, a former senator and Special Advisor on Children's Rights, started these events involving music, theatre, spoken word and humour. We have kept the tradition alive.
This year, honourable senators, we will hear from a variety of children, including Becka deHaan, a young singer from New Brunswick who has been blind most of her life, and a group of Inuit who will be throat singing.
However, that is only a sample of the day's events. The day provides an opportunity for us, as senators, to promote what we do in the Senate. It is how we can highlight the Senate to young people by ensuring that they respect what we do and how we do it.
Honourable senators, National Child Day commemorates the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by the United Nations General Assembly on November 20, 1989. Canada ratified that convention in December 1991.
Opportunities like this event are when we get to do special things like open the doors of the Senate to young people who are the future of Canada.
Honourable senators, you will notice I am wearing a blue ribbon to commemorate National Child Day. Pat Hogan, a child care worker from a preschool in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, made these ribbons and distributed them in conjunction with her member of Parliament, Michael Savage, so that we can all show our support in a special way.
Another way we highlight this day is through our theme. This year's theme is "Striving for Success." We can only hope that what we do here in this place will inspire all children to do just that.