When I was 10 and my sister was 7, we learned that more than 100 countries around the world have recognized their citizens' right to live in a healthy environment, but Canada is not one of them. Having grown up believing that Canada was an environmental and human rights leader, we believed our rights were protected. We were confused and disappointed.
Although we were young, we felt it was our responsibility to work to help create the country we wanted, needed and deserved, so we began our journey raising awareness about environmental rights and making social and political change wherever we could.
For the last nine years, we have been working with all levels of Canadian government to encourage them to formally recognize environmental rights. We helped support 23 municipal declarations in our region, and I've been working with local and provincial political leaders around provincial and federal recognition of environmental rights.
When we were young, we thought we were so lucky growing up in Victoria, where there is so much natural beauty and we felt so safe. As we grew older, we realized that we weren't immune to feeling or experiencing the impacts of unsafe environmental conditions.
It's overwhelming thinking about all of the problems in the world, or even in our own country, so we like to focus on solutions. We believe that adding environmental rights to Canadian law will give individuals, vulnerable populations, communities and their local environment the ability to be healthier and more secure, and we believe it would benefit Canada by adding to its global reputation.