[Applause]
[Music]
I’m going to speak for a few minutes if
you don’t mind on the subject of the
future and the future of youth and the
future of youth well beyond our borders
let alone inside our borders and trying
to influence our youth and our young
people to engage worldwide we’ve all
been hearing a lot about 150th
anniversary of this very unique
democracy one of the most stable in the
world you’ve been hearing also every now
and again about Vimy Ridge and how your
peers those 18 to 21 22 some of them 17
and so on went across the big pond and
fought and died at Vimy Ridge to move us
from being a a sort of colonial cousin
to actually a nation-state
and paid that in blood young people and
it’s always amazing that the young
people are the one that we send out and
they’re in the frontlines of what we
want to do internationally in so many
cases yet the young people don’t vote to
engage themselves in making sure those
decisions make sense because of all the
young people in this country but 25
there’s nearly 2.9 million votes and
barely barely 20 percent of them vote
and if they all voted they would
actually hold the balance of power in
this country the young people will hold
votes that have never been used so if
they voted they could shift the whole
nature of our political structure in the
country so you are empowered with the
ability to change significantly if you
could get together and coalesce and why
I raise that is because we’re in an era
where we sort of stumbled into a
complete different world after the Cold
War in the 90s and into the now the new
millennium we’ve stumbled into an era of
significant change and because of that
has been an enormous amount of
opportunities either lost or not really
grasped to the maximum an example is
that 150th it was a bit of great
opportunity to actually articulate by
the political elite of this country the
vision of the future if I just think of
what we did in the past but actually use
this as a start point for the future now
from here what do we do globally because
contrary to every other time we actually
can be global we never weren’t before
global but now we can be Google we can
actually Skype soon anybody on the
planet we can actually communicate
real-time and so with that ability and
that extraordinary technological
revolution we should be maximizing it as
we face the other revolutions like the
environmental revolution which just
starting where we have to make a
communion between the people the
humanity and the planet so that the
planet and humanity will thrive not
survive thrive that’s what we want we’re
not here survivalist we want to thrive
we want to push the limits and continue
to grow we also have concerns on
security and security and how its
influencing and how it’s being
influenced by a whole variety of factors
out there that are not what they used to
be they’re not necessarily nationalism
or power structures between
nation-states
on the contrary some of the extremists
like Isis don’t even have borders and so
in this particular year of starting up
if we were thinking of a vision the
adults could have brought out some some
interesting initiatives to bring us even
closer together one of the ideas I had
this eye I said why don’t we replicate
what we did 150 years ago why don’t we
build a high-speed train from Halifax to
Vancouver because 150 years ago when we
built that train that was high-speed
then so why not it and if it takes 40
years fine nothing wrong with that it’s
an engineering problem but imagine how
it can bring us much tighter together
then in fact that we see the air systems
going and so
maybe a complete reconciliation of a
whole new order with the First Nations
with the Inuit with the meaty there’s
over a million in this country
throughout the country why not
rebuild a capability so we see a value
added of our synergy together them so
close to the to nature and us often so
far away from nature and simply using it
imagine if we can marry that up and so
those are maybe a couple adult things
but what about the young people the ones
who are actually going to carry the can
into the future what about them
well one of the great advantages that
they have is they actually mastery tool
that none of us had before this
generation be under 25 even under 20 s
have an ability to go global you are in
fact global all those communications
tools that you’re using in social media
are global my son used the war game
between a given Moscow and one and real
theme they were next door you are global
you got the power to use it locally you
can call s in real time and move
significantly any sort of idea or
concept but it my needs people to master
it to give it focus to give it a
guidance and that’s what that vision
could have given kind of given there’s a
grander design of where there was you
what do we use this country it’s kind of
in the global environment what can it do
to advance humanity to continue the
advancement of us to thrive and we
didn’t get that so it is very much in
the hands of you the young people to
articulate the absolute essential ‘ti of
getting that focus and moving beyond our
borders and that’s to me an element
fundamental to the future because in so
many countries in the world your peers
are the ones who are in fact absorbing
and actually becoming the victims let
alone being destroyed by decisions of
adults in
any other conflicts around the world the
creation of the idea of using children
as weapons of war children fighting
adult Wars before we didn’t have
children in Wars because of their age
now because of their age we do have a
min wars from 8 to 18 and we built a lot
of laws and instruments to try to
protect them but they’ve been not much
in the field to actually implement it
how do we actually get it mobile how do
we influence the situation when I saw
how the young militia that started off
as a little Youth party sort of group
then attached to a a political party and
how over the period of seven months with
radio and communications and events and
so on how they were radicalized and
became a militia that in fact led the
slaughter of 800,000 people the whole
ability to move that massive amount when
you look at the demographics of the
world in many countries were the
population 50% of population is under 15
so there’s a a massive number of people
to come and to be able to influence it
so that’s why after it’s witnessing what
happened there and nobody’s stopping it
I went to Harvard did my research and
since then at Dalhousie and we’ve
created an initiative with a whole new
doctrinal a whole new structure how to
train militaries and police forces so
that they can actually prevent the
recruitment of children and make their
use ineffective if we can make the
children the liability people won’t
recruit them and to make them a
liability doesn’t mean by killing him
which is the only thing going on out
there in Syria in the Congo in South
Sudan Somalia Central African Republic
and how much even in Colombia did they
do their is around the world over fifty
one organizations and in over seventeen
conflicts where we are seeing tens and
tens of thousands of children being the
primary weapon
of which 40% are girls and they’re used
in everything from upfront gun to gun
all the way through to supporting and
ultimately even sex ladies and bush
wives adults are using kids to conduct
these Wars there’s something
fundamentally morally corrupt with the
world of permitting that and so they’re
screaming for peer support those kids
need references out there to get them
out to help them not get recruited and
so we’re engaged in training all these
armies and these police forces all their
110,000 peacekeepers that are out there
every six months they change around for
every peacekeeper in the field
you’ve got five who are in preparation
for training and on leave and so on
we’re talking half-a-million
peacekeepers at any one time to train
them to make them more effective in
reducing the capabilities of people to
recruit children and also to give the
ability of children to recognize how not
to get sucked in how not to be used and
ultimately how to in fact stay safe and
that’s the essence of my life and I
believe you can be engaged I believe
there should be a sort of a rite of
passage in a great country like ours
only 11 most powerful nations in the
world we have a responsibility beyond
their borders I think what we can do is
that this rite of passage just says that
after an undergraduate degree maybe or
even high school that we have to have a
pair of sneakers or boots under your bed
that have been solved and the earth of a
developing country where you’ve seen
where eighty percent of humanity is
living where you see it you hear it you
smell it you taste it you feel it and
you come back after weeks or months and
you keep that in your mind you keep that
flame that got ignited of how you have
been insulted by seeing the poverty and
the abuse of your peers and create the
capability
join in the efforts to prevent their
recruitment create your own NGO coalesce
communicate use the extraordinary force
multiplier that you have now that we
never had and that is that revolution of
communications and the ability to go
overseas relatively cheaply subtle like
a sophisticated bus ride to get over
there and so yeah we can stop the use of
children as weapons of war if we got an
engagement and so I think my bottom line
is I didn’t had many problems in 1967
100th anniversary building hockey rink
centennial rinks or parks sure of course
I think we can do better this time I
think we can take the government in this
country and the youth of this country
getting out there and take the governor
in this country and say why don’t you
lead in this whole movement of trying to
reduce the impact of war on children
children caught up in armed conflict why
don’t you lead the world in trying with
others in trying to eliminate that and
doing it without the slaughter of those
children and the impact that has on
those peacekeepers who have to come home
after having used lethal force against a
child I had a sergeant who met me we’ve
done five tours he was back for years
and still was not able to hug his
children for what he had to do overseas
these moral and ethical dilemmas are
blowing their minds so why don’t we lead
the pack why doesn’t this country why
doesn’t our young Prime Minister
Minister of Youth take this on bringing
a couple other countries on board and we
say we are going to move with the youth
of my own nation and with our
capabilities and resources we are going
to move the world to eradicate the use
of children as weapons of war and in
fact even make it unthinkable then then
I will say the world is advancing and is
not mortgage
a generational continuum of war as we’re
seeing so much of today thank you very
much
[Applause]
[Music]
I’m going to speak for a few minutes if
you don’t mind on the subject of the
future and the future of youth and the
future of youth well beyond our borders
let alone inside our borders and trying
to influence our youth and our young
people to engage worldwide we’ve all
been hearing a lot about 150th
anniversary of this very unique
democracy one of the most stable in the
world you’ve been hearing also every now
and again about Vimy Ridge and how your
peers those 18 to 21 22 some of them 17
and so on went across the big pond and
fought and died at Vimy Ridge to move us
from being a a sort of colonial cousin
to actually a nation-state
and paid that in blood young people and
it’s always amazing that the young
people are the one that we send out and
they’re in the frontlines of what we
want to do internationally in so many
cases yet the young people don’t vote to
engage themselves in making sure those
decisions make sense because of all the
young people in this country but 25
there’s nearly 2.9 million votes and
barely barely 20 percent of them vote
and if they all voted they would
actually hold the balance of power in
this country the young people will hold
votes that have never been used so if
they voted they could shift the whole
nature of our political structure in the
country so you are empowered with the
ability to change significantly if you
could get together and coalesce and why
I raise that is because we’re in an era
where we sort of stumbled into a
complete different world after the Cold
War in the 90s and into the now the new
millennium we’ve stumbled into an era of
significant change and because of that
has been an enormous amount of
opportunities either lost or not really
grasped to the maximum an example is
that 150th it was a bit of great
opportunity to actually articulate by
the political elite of this country the
vision of the future if I just think of
what we did in the past but actually use
this as a start point for the future now
from here what do we do globally because
contrary to every other time we actually
can be global we never weren’t before
global but now we can be Google we can
actually Skype soon anybody on the
planet we can actually communicate
real-time and so with that ability and
that extraordinary technological
revolution we should be maximizing it as
we face the other revolutions like the
environmental revolution which just
starting where we have to make a
communion between the people the
humanity and the planet so that the
planet and humanity will thrive not
survive thrive that’s what we want we’re
not here survivalist we want to thrive
we want to push the limits and continue
to grow we also have concerns on
security and security and how its
influencing and how it’s being
influenced by a whole variety of factors
out there that are not what they used to
be they’re not necessarily nationalism
or power structures between
nation-states
on the contrary some of the extremists
like Isis don’t even have borders and so
in this particular year of starting up
if we were thinking of a vision the
adults could have brought out some some
interesting initiatives to bring us even
closer together one of the ideas I had
this eye I said why don’t we replicate
what we did 150 years ago why don’t we
build a high-speed train from Halifax to
Vancouver because 150 years ago when we
built that train that was high-speed
then so why not it and if it takes 40
years fine nothing wrong with that it’s
an engineering problem but imagine how
it can bring us much tighter together
then in fact that we see the air systems
going and so
maybe a complete reconciliation of a
whole new order with the First Nations
with the Inuit with the meaty there’s
over a million in this country
throughout the country why not
rebuild a capability so we see a value
added of our synergy together them so
close to the to nature and us often so
far away from nature and simply using it
imagine if we can marry that up and so
those are maybe a couple adult things
but what about the young people the ones
who are actually going to carry the can
into the future what about them
well one of the great advantages that
they have is they actually mastery tool
that none of us had before this
generation be under 25 even under 20 s
have an ability to go global you are in
fact global all those communications
tools that you’re using in social media
are global my son used the war game
between a given Moscow and one and real
theme they were next door you are global
you got the power to use it locally you
can call s in real time and move
significantly any sort of idea or
concept but it my needs people to master
it to give it focus to give it a
guidance and that’s what that vision
could have given kind of given there’s a
grander design of where there was you
what do we use this country it’s kind of
in the global environment what can it do
to advance humanity to continue the
advancement of us to thrive and we
didn’t get that so it is very much in
the hands of you the young people to
articulate the absolute essential ‘ti of
getting that focus and moving beyond our
borders and that’s to me an element
fundamental to the future because in so
many countries in the world your peers
are the ones who are in fact absorbing
and actually becoming the victims let
alone being destroyed by decisions of
adults in
any other conflicts around the world the
creation of the idea of using children
as weapons of war children fighting
adult Wars before we didn’t have
children in Wars because of their age
now because of their age we do have a
min wars from 8 to 18 and we built a lot
of laws and instruments to try to
protect them but they’ve been not much
in the field to actually implement it
how do we actually get it mobile how do
we influence the situation when I saw
how the young militia that started off
as a little Youth party sort of group
then attached to a a political party and
how over the period of seven months with
radio and communications and events and
so on how they were radicalized and
became a militia that in fact led the
slaughter of 800,000 people the whole
ability to move that massive amount when
you look at the demographics of the
world in many countries were the
population 50% of population is under 15
so there’s a a massive number of people
to come and to be able to influence it
so that’s why after it’s witnessing what
happened there and nobody’s stopping it
I went to Harvard did my research and
since then at Dalhousie and we’ve
created an initiative with a whole new
doctrinal a whole new structure how to
train militaries and police forces so
that they can actually prevent the
recruitment of children and make their
use ineffective if we can make the
children the liability people won’t
recruit them and to make them a
liability doesn’t mean by killing him
which is the only thing going on out
there in Syria in the Congo in South
Sudan Somalia Central African Republic
and how much even in Colombia did they
do their is around the world over fifty
one organizations and in over seventeen
conflicts where we are seeing tens and
tens of thousands of children being the
primary weapon
of which 40% are girls and they’re used
in everything from upfront gun to gun
all the way through to supporting and
ultimately even sex ladies and bush
wives adults are using kids to conduct
these Wars there’s something
fundamentally morally corrupt with the
world of permitting that and so they’re
screaming for peer support those kids
need references out there to get them
out to help them not get recruited and
so we’re engaged in training all these
armies and these police forces all their
110,000 peacekeepers that are out there
every six months they change around for
every peacekeeper in the field
you’ve got five who are in preparation
for training and on leave and so on
we’re talking half-a-million
peacekeepers at any one time to train
them to make them more effective in
reducing the capabilities of people to
recruit children and also to give the
ability of children to recognize how not
to get sucked in how not to be used and
ultimately how to in fact stay safe and
that’s the essence of my life and I
believe you can be engaged I believe
there should be a sort of a rite of
passage in a great country like ours
only 11 most powerful nations in the
world we have a responsibility beyond
their borders I think what we can do is
that this rite of passage just says that
after an undergraduate degree maybe or
even high school that we have to have a
pair of sneakers or boots under your bed
that have been solved and the earth of a
developing country where you’ve seen
where eighty percent of humanity is
living where you see it you hear it you
smell it you taste it you feel it and
you come back after weeks or months and
you keep that in your mind you keep that
flame that got ignited of how you have
been insulted by seeing the poverty and
the abuse of your peers and create the
capability
join in the efforts to prevent their
recruitment create your own NGO coalesce
communicate use the extraordinary force
multiplier that you have now that we
never had and that is that revolution of
communications and the ability to go
overseas relatively cheaply subtle like
a sophisticated bus ride to get over
there and so yeah we can stop the use of
children as weapons of war if we got an
engagement and so I think my bottom line
is I didn’t had many problems in 1967
100th anniversary building hockey rink
centennial rinks or parks sure of course
I think we can do better this time I
think we can take the government in this
country and the youth of this country
getting out there and take the governor
in this country and say why don’t you
lead in this whole movement of trying to
reduce the impact of war on children
children caught up in armed conflict why
don’t you lead the world in trying with
others in trying to eliminate that and
doing it without the slaughter of those
children and the impact that has on
those peacekeepers who have to come home
after having used lethal force against a
child I had a sergeant who met me we’ve
done five tours he was back for years
and still was not able to hug his
children for what he had to do overseas
these moral and ethical dilemmas are
blowing their minds so why don’t we lead
the pack why doesn’t this country why
doesn’t our young Prime Minister
Minister of Youth take this on bringing
a couple other countries on board and we
say we are going to move with the youth
of my own nation and with our
capabilities and resources we are going
to move the world to eradicate the use
of children as weapons of war and in
fact even make it unthinkable then then
I will say the world is advancing and is
not mortgage
a generational continuum of war as we’re
seeing so much of today thank you very
much
[Applause]
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