Mr. Speaker, on this International Day of the Girl Child, I would like to take a moment to honour my favourite girl, my daughter Françoise. She is a funny, mischievous, intelligent and fiery six-year-old. She is bilingual in French and English, she loves math, she's a brilliant artist and a ballet dancer. At this point, she plans to be a farmer and a teacher. She plans to marry her best friend and let her carry their babies because she is not interested in the pain of childbirth.
Françoise is a loving older sister but demanding of her brother. She hates loud noises, she is hard to reason with when she's hungry, she gets upset when she does not get a chance to plead her case or tell her side of a story, and she demands respect for her personal space bubble.
While I reflect on her life so far, I am at once overcome with love and gratitude that she is in my life, and fear and worry over her safety, well-being and health. I daily wonder how best to prepare her for what seems to me a terrifying, complex world waiting for her.
In a world that seems to be moving at an alarming rate and yet in some ways moving too slowly, I pledge to work as hard as I can to give voice to issues affecting girls in our world and to continue to call for policy that creates true equity and safety for girls everywhere.
