Foreign Affairs committee  Thank you very much for the opportunity. I really appreciate it.

Foreign Affairs committee  On the education stuff, we saw unbelievable innovation and creativity in the way in which young people who took control of educational curriculum innovated. We saw extraordinary civil society organizations, which are often standing outside of formal educational curriculum, but ar

Foreign Affairs committee  Yes, there are. Finland has gone down the path of establishing a national action plan. There are one or two others as well. I'm not sure exactly how far down the path they are. We considered this very seriously. We were strongly advised by stakeholders in the women, peace and se

Foreign Affairs committee  It's a great question, and I wish I could do justice to the complexity of the feedback we got from young people on this. On the one hand, I think you're right. We need to see the innovative and diverse space that education offers. Young people always talk about primary, secondar

Foreign Affairs committee  I have a bit of a love affair with New York. I also have a number of relatives living in Toronto. I have a personal dual loyalty on this, and would be very comfortable with it. There is a more important agenda for me. I wear the hat of an international, civil society, peace-build

Foreign Affairs committee  This is a really interesting question and I'm afraid there is no simple answer to it. Youth congresses, youth councils, parallel structures—there are some amazing examples of where these are truly represented. They provide genuine access for young people into the political proc

Foreign Affairs committee  I can speak on it, but I probably shouldn't, because it's not an area of my expertise. What I will say is this: there is a really important parallel here in the way in which we think about...and the potential dangers of securitizing the conversation, whether it's about youth, pea

Foreign Affairs committee  My understanding is that the evidence reflects that, but as I said, it's not an area of expertise. I can't cite the studies that would back that up. I'm not doing a study of young women's participation in peacekeeping operations specifically. There's no question in my mind that y

Foreign Affairs committee  I certainly wouldn't say that. My instinct is that Canada may have a great deal to offer the world, as a society that demonstrates a very clear commitment to inclusion, in ways that others don't. I think that Canada is wrestling with the particular experiences of its indigenous p

Foreign Affairs committee  You're absolutely right. I think that, in some ways, the discourse around social media and ICT reflects the broader problems we've been talking about. On the one hand, this is very easily seen, especially when occupied by young people as a threatening space, a place where they'll

Foreign Affairs committee  I think I addressed some of the questions around the freedoms in relation to the earlier question on human rights, and I won't dwell on that. I think, globally, the prevailing frustration of young people is the stereotype that sees them primarily as a risk and a threat. Youthfu

Foreign Affairs committee  I think you're right. We need to distinguish and recognize that there are some countries where the problem is an increasingly contracting youth population and a growing population of older people, in parts of the world. In others, there is the phenomenon of the youth bulge, the g

Foreign Affairs committee  It means we have to act and we have to enrich the exercise and processes of inclusion and participation and do more to accredit the systems. I think you're right. First, we need to disaggregate what we mean by political participation. We had a submission by the department of poli

Foreign Affairs committee  This is an extraordinary question, and I thank you for it. Let me begin by saying that, although Resolution 2250 defines young people as 18 to 29, what became very clear to us is that youth is much more a socio-cultural phenomenon than it is a chronological age, and one of the p

Foreign Affairs committee  Mr. Chair and Vice-Chairs, I'm really appreciative to the Foreign Affairs and International Development committee for this opportunity to speak to you. In some way, I feel it's imperative by way of report-back because we were very indebted to Canada for its support of the progres