This paper's starting place is with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child's assumption that child care is a right and that governments have a responsibility in ensuring that this right is achieved. The paper reviews the Canadian political and social context for child care, putting this in a historical context; reviews the current child care situation; discusses the Articles of the Convention that pertain to
early learning and child care; and concludes that Canada has not yet taken the issue of children's right to early learning and child care seriously.

This Occasional Paper is a working version of a chapter prepared for A Question of Commitment: Children's Rights in Canada (working title) edited by R. Brian Howe and Katherine Covell, Waterloo, Wilfred Laurier University Press, (expected publication, 2007).

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