Statement made on 19 November 2009 by Senator Jim Munson
Hon. Jim Munson:
Honourable senators, my question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate. This week marks the twentieth anniversary of National Child Day, a day that commemorates the unanimous 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, but we have not seen a significant amount of action since then.
In 2007, UNICEF gave Canada a ranking of 12 out of 21 countries regarding the well-being of our children. The situation of Aboriginal children is particularly tragic; they are twice as likely to live in poverty, twice as likely to commit suicide, three times as likely to drop out of school, and three times as likely to die in infancy.
These are really tough statistics to recite in this chamber. What is the government doing to change them?
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