OTTAWA, December 18, 2013 –The Honourable Steven Blaney, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, and the Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, today highlighted an important new tool from the Canadian Centre for Child Protection to help locate missing and lost children.
“Our Government takes the safety of our citizens very seriously, particularly the most vulnerable members of our society – our children,” said Minister Blaney. “We commend the work done by organisations across Canada that help to find missing children. These technologies ensure that parents are well prepared to take action should their child get lost or go missing.”
“Having a missing or lost child is an unbearable thought for any parent,” said Minister MacKay. “Our Government is committed to protecting children and supports applications and technology which will help parents act quickly if their child cannot be found.”
The Find Me ID app allows parents to store current photographs and contains automated prompts for reminding parents to update information about their child that can be easily accessed on their smartphone and is password protected.
“We know that when a child goes missing, every second counts,” said Lianna McDonald, Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection. “In these types of time sensitive situations, the Find Me ID app allows parents to take immediate action by having their child’s critical information right at their fingertips.”
The Canadian Centre for Child Protection has been involved in the search for missing children for 30 years and has used this knowledge to devise an app that will help in the quick response and recovery of lost and missing children. As of now, there have been over 5,300 downloads. Any parent who has ever been separated from their child in a grocery store or at a shopping mall knows that every second counts.
For more information on the app, visit the www.findmeID.ca website and follow @CdnChildProtect.
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For further information:
Jean-Christophe de Le Rue
Director of Communications
Office of the Minister of Public Safety
613-991-2924
Media Relations
Public Safety Canada
613-991-0657
media@ps-sp.gc.ca
