News Release

CBSA, Enfant-Retour Québec and Aéroports de Montréal join forces to raise awareness of missing children

Montréal, Quebec, March 15, 2012 – Starting today, posters of missing children will be displayed on some 100 LCD screens in the terminal of Montréal-Trudeau Airport. In all, 16 photographs of missing children will appear on Astral Média’s system of screens at the Airport.

This initiative emerged from an agreement between the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), Enfant-Retour Québec (Missing Children’s Network) and Aéroports de Montréal (ADM). Any person with information about a missing child is urged to contact the police or call the CBSA’s toll-free Border Watch Line at 1-888-502-9060.

"Every day, CBSA officers demonstrate that they are serious about the task of identifying missing children at the border," said the honourable Vic Toews, Minister of Public Safety. "Since 1986, under the program Our Missing Children, officers have helped return 1,700 missing children to their families."

"We are grateful to the CBSA and ADM for this wonderful initiative. With over a million people passing through the airport each month, posting these photos will expose the faces of these children to all those pairs of eyes and perhaps make a difference in the lives of the affected families. It is also an excellent opportunity to sensitize the travelling public to the phenomenon of missing children," pointed out Pina Arcamone, Director General of Enfant-Retour Québec.

Travellers can avoid delays at Canadian ports of entry by having with them the identity documents of children travelling with them, regardless of their age. In addition, parents with shared custody of a child should have with them legal papers specifying custody arrangements. Any adult who is not the parent or guardian of a child should carry a letter of permission from the parent or legal guardian, as well as the child’s identity documents. For more information, go to: www.ourmissingchildren.gc.ca.

The "Our Missing Children" Program grew out of a partnership between the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the CBSA, the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and the Department of Justice.

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For further information

Communications Division
Canada Border Services Agency
514-350-6130

Media Relations
Enfant-Retour Québec
514-843-4333, ext. 224