Democracy is in a fragile state
Standing up for those who are less fortunate is important. I sometimes wonder what our younger generation is doing to become aware of the politics of this country and how right-wing, well-financed movements are gaining power in provinces in Canada. Thankfully, I notice on a very local level in Kirkland Lake in Northern Ontario that secondary school students are finding the courage and the voice to protest and represent as a means to draw attention to just causes.
Kaytlyn Julien, a First Nation student at Kirkland Lake District Composite School, was one of the organizers of a walk for Orange Shirt Day September 30. The event is a legacy of the St. Joseph Mission residential school commemoration event first held in Williams Lake, British Columbia, in 2013. It grew out of the story of a young girl named Phyllis having her new orange shirt taken away from her on the first day of residential school.
These events dedicated to Phyllis now happen nationally and have become an annual opportunity to create discussion on all aspects of residential schools. The date was chosen because it is the time of year when children were taken from their homes to residential schools. It helps underpin the implementation of anti-racism and anti-bullying policies for the coming school year.
Kaytlyn and all those who organize to remember residential school survivors across Canada are to be commended. Both my mother and father were both taken by the government and placed in residential schools when they were children. I have had to live with the affects of this travesty that has carried through the generations.
This generation of young people are finding a voice and standing up for what they believe. Another example of their actions has to do with the recent protest by secondary school students in Ontario to fight against the government rollback of sex education to curriculum created more than 20 years ago. At Kirkland Lake District Composite School, the students walked out of school to protest the new Doug Ford government’s decision to reverse a more enlightened sex education curriculum put forward by the past Liberal administration. I cannot believe that in this modern era we have people who want to return to a time when we kept our children in the dark with regards to sexual information.
Powerful, well-funded organizers are pushing right-wing governments all over the world. Both Quebec and Ontario recently elected such governments. I am concerned that this is happening for the most part because people are just not all that concerned about the promotion of right-wing politics. It makes me more hopeful when I hear about young people becoming educated, aware and involved in politics. I feel better about the future when I see secondary, college and university students taking a stand on issues that are facing us in terms of protecting our democracy, treating minorities fairly, providing a better quality of life for people and protecting our environment.
In the 1930s one of the most brilliant, progressive and intelligent societies in Germany was bullied and manipulated by right-wing thugs backed by wealthy and powerful people to become fascist. As filmmaker Michael Moore points out in his movie Fahrenheit 11/9, what happened in the 1930s with the Nazi movement can and is happening again today. It is up to us all to become more aware of what is happening to us politically, discover who is pulling the strings and doing the manipulation and to organize and fight back.
A lot of this energy and effort must come from our secondary, college and university students who can help fuel a renewed commitment to democracy and fairness for all. It is really up to us all and if we choose to ignore what is happening around us and become apathetic then we might be very surprised when the jackboots come marching our way again.