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Engaging youth in democracy | Catherine Cano | TEDxKanata


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Buzzelli PA she says the worst of work

was that vanilla confit instead it more

sweet I count on that histy my French is

pretty good huh okay I have no merit I

am French in fact I did not learn any

English before I was 19 why well I come

from a stronghold of the independence

movement in Quebec you can tell by my

accent right and this is where the

separatists party the Parti québécois

elected one of its first members to the

National Assembly so I was born in

Shakuni which is a very very beautiful

and very francophone town north of

Quebec City so growing up I really

didn’t really feel connected with what

we call then the Canada Anglais I did

not speak the language let alone

understand its culture in fact it had

little to do with me I knew more about

Europe that I knew about my own country

but something changed

this whole experience of Canada for me I

was fortunate to be chosen as a page in

the House of Commons

I was with 30 other students of my age

coming from all across the country

speaking different languages and with

different cultures yes we had different

stories but we share common values in a

desire to learn about one another and

what’s amazing about the page program

is that you get to work on Parliament

Hill and learn about the inner workings

of our democracy and how it is

threatened by our regional and cultural

diversity in other words I learned that

Canada was made stronger by you and me

it was so inspiring in fact if I learned

something from that experience is that

for democracy to be inclusive it has to

be accessible I was lucky I got to come

to Ottawa okay I had to be on a bus for

eight hours but still not every

kid has or will ever have that privilege

and honor that’s why I’m extraordinarily

excited about the power technology in a

digital era wherein as we know Canada is

a very very big country people are

separated by thousands and thousands of

kilometres what technology does it

shrinks that geography it brings us

closer together and in a way it puts us

in the same room so we suddenly have an

opportunity we never had before

to connect with one another

instantaneously hear our stories and

share them and what may be even more

exciting is that now we can live and

build the Canadian story because each of

us can participate in a political

process and have a say in the effort of

the nations from almost everywhere in

this country who do you think are the

best people to take on that opportunity

I’ll give you a hint they are a little

younger than me yeah the younger people

that generation said and the Millennials

they are born they grew up with digital

technology they are the largest users in

fact they’re the ones who can easily

take on our new instantaneous digital

direct democracy did you know that those

two generations combined almost

represent to us the population of Canada

and half the population of the United

States now I know some of you would

point out to me but Katherine this is

very exciting this easy access is a big

conversation but it comes with risk and

you would be right

on one hand technology allows us to

connect with and talk to people at any

time about anything on the other hand it

allows us to weigh in on issues

sometimes without knowing all the

dimensions and frankly sometimes without

having a clue what we’re talking about

let’s face it we live in a world where

we surround ourselves with like-minded

thinkers we live in a world where it’s

easy to hide behind our digital

conversation in opinion on top of that

we live in a world

where there is total confusion between

fake and real news many citizens cannot

are unable anymore to distinguish

between the two we live in a world where

facts are turned on their heads where in

which the truth is embedded with

partisanship subjectivity impartiality

the phenomenon of fake news is amplified

by how technology gives access to and

spread and spreading of information but

worst misinformation so the result is a

distrust a distrust of the media in a

cynicism about well just about

everything the disconnect between the

politicians and the public fed up with

the elite is growing deeper a public at

last not knowing what to believe or who

to believe so no wonder young people are

not beating down the doors to

participate in their democracy who could

blame them but I wish they would

well Digital trust is their distrust I

should say is Israel in a growing the

risk of digital technology is and should

not be an argument against using it in

fact quite the contrary there is a

definite argument to be made for using

it better

did you know why because ill informed

masses put democracies at risk yes Hill

informed masses put democracies at risk

we all know that right the last of

always say the real years you can tell

I’m not totally quite man lingo

he has actually showed us that democracy

are fragile and even close to home and

even here at home so it is imperative

that we actually find ways and means to

connect people and especially young

people to listen to them on the ground

share their stories provide them with

context and relevant information this is

at the core of our democracy of a health

healthy democracy and we have to mean

to achieve that with technologies today

so the challenge is how do we balance

the promise of digital interaction with

the practice of democracy how do we make

sure the public discourse is elevated

and not hindered and what is the role of

the media in this changing political

process I believe and at CPAC we all

believe that the younger young Canadians

learn about the democracy the more

knowledgeable and engaged to become the

stronger our society will be I believe

this and I believe something else how

often do you hear people say wait a

minute you know people are not

interested in politics and news I didn’t

have time for more than 140 characters

now at 280 or a 30-second video on

policies they don’t need it

and in fact they just don’t care I

believe this is wrong wrong and

dismissive it is true that young people

do not vote in great numbers but it is

not true that they don’t care just think

of what’s going on in Florida right now

and it’s the proof that when the stakes

are high youth become engaged fearless

and brave they will stand and they will

stand very tall

in their readiness to move mountains to

challenge the status quo even to fight

the the powerful NRA

for literally the fight of their life so

what’s happening has exposed a

deep-seated political incident within

those young people that I think many of

us as a human did not exist it shouldn’t

take a tragedy of a big proportion to

make us realize their political

potential I don’t know if you had a

chance to see a documentary we did a

couple of years ago called to drop why

young people do not vote

we sent reporters around North America

to interview young people and try to

find out what is this habit about well I

did the filming they actually concluded

there was not such a thing in fact young

people wanted to talk politics but they

didn’t want to be scolded and maybe

probably many of you know this

organization called apathy is boring yes

a little bit

well the organization’s mission is to

mobilize youth to vote and they are

doing surveys of young Canadians

thousands of them young Canadians who

actually consume the media quite

differently than their parents across

the country and yes they found out that

while young people do not seek on their

own the information about political

affairs they are keen and open to learn

about politics as long as we present it

to them so apathy is not to blame here

because people do care young people do

care the so called apathy is merely a

symptom of a significantly bigger

problem if you listen to young people

what they will tell you is that they

have lost trust in their media in our

institutions it’s because we have lost

their trust by choosing not to engage

them on issues that they care about

that’s the problem

and you know what that’s our problem

collectively together we cannot just

ignore it and walk away and pretend

doesn’t exist we owe it to those to the

next generations to find solutions so

let’s see Bank we decided to be part of

the solution and well after all we are

the democracy channel a media

organization whose mission is to advance

democracy and we’re passionate about it

my team wants to make a difference I

want to make a difference

so we sat down with teachers with

obviously young people parents and we

came up with one idea we think it pretty

good

it’s got innovative it’s our democratic

literacy project called route 3 3 8

for 338 federal ratings there are two

things to know about this project first

we’re using technology to connect young

people to one another so we created that

microsite it’s a map of Canada a virtual

roadtrip writing by writing it’s an

interactive interactive tool to help

young Canadian learn about their

democracy so in the hopes in fact that

they get engaged in their international

conversation so on this digital map you

will find that the ography the history

the economy the people the culture which

indigenous territory the writing sits on

what are the main local issues and what

are the fun facts and then you want to

know what your member of parliament does

you can watch videos of a daily life

either in their writing or in Ottawa or

you want to dig in on an issue that you

care about well you can go in a section

we called InFocus

so this digital experience is a first

part the second part is we wanted to add

a real-life experience and we teamed up

with an amazing group of people the

Royal Canadian geographical society

they created a giant floor map as big as

a gym believe me of all the 338 ridings

with each community of five people and

more because democracy is about people

so those maps are travelling schools

right now across the country and

teachers are using them to help kids

learn play interact imagine kids walking

and in fact sometimes running from an

urban community to a rural community

what a powerful way to actually learn

about the reality of french-speaking

english-speaking indigenous people in

new Canadian and the best part is those

two maps the microsite and the giant

floor map they come with teaching

activities built around the pillars of

our democracy so the kids learn about

the famous five Louie Riel about the

people in a milestone that made this

country Canada and whose stories are the

glue that holds together our democracy

they learn about what’s the writing why

some are bigger

what’s the role of parliament and what

is it to be a responsible citizen the

this experience is helping them navigate

the political system and the best part

they’re having fun doing it

listen to them I learned about all the

different writings and like how they

work and where they are so that was

pretty cool yeah I really like the

hands-on aspect of it and that you could

actually stand on it and you could

measure the kilometres response

conceived come on burn opportunity did

the football I like Cathy Matthew this

you AC pas Mon counts so c-come on the

sound oh my god they took a page to a

type of I so I do think it’s very

important to teach children about

democracy because that’s gonna prepare

them for later on in life when it’s

their turn to vote I had a few students

recently saying yeah some people have

the opportunity to vote and they don’t

even do it

so you know when they’re passionate

about it it means that when it’s time

for them to start voting then they will

be contributors to our society so

researchers agree on three things one

the more citizen appreciate the

importance of knowing the issues to

comprehend the impact of policies on

their day-to-day lives and three the

role and work of their elected

representative the more likely they will

participate in the political process in

the last 20 years there’s been many many

surveys conducted around the world

showing the in the positive impact of

civic education the positive impact of

civic implicit education on voter

turnout on intent to vote on political

knowledge interest in in civic

so redesigning how to engage youth is

crucial to the future of our democracy

it’s time to be creative to not be

afraid to try new ways to reach out to

young people to humanize the

conversations create opportunities for

them to learn be interested in involve

at the beginning I talked about how our

democracy is made stronger by our

regional and cultural diversity that is

true but the divert our diversity is our

biggest strength if we have the

sensitivity the knowledge and the tools

to listen to one another and learn from

one another the outcome is mutual

respect and that’s the safeguard of our

democracy the sooner we start the better

of civil society will be and in the end

this will be our legacy so we need to do

this now help us make a difference in

young Canadians lives get them engaged

in their country tell them about this

project or about just knowing the

importance of understanding and learning

tell them that all together we are the

builders of our democracy tell your kids

that they are the builders of their

[Applause] [Music]

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