My Wish for the Students of the "Treaty 4 The Next Generation" Project

Dear students of the "Treaty 4 the Next Generation" Project,

May you use your new found knowledge to help others to see the world differently.  May you consider that which you read, see or hear before making a decision about it.  I  hope you will ask yourselves, "Whose voice am I not hearing?", "What other perspective is there?" and "What else do I need to know?" before you jump to a conclusion or accept something as truth.

 I hope you learned that when we collaborate we are more intelligent, more creative, more considerate and more artistic because we combine many ways of knowing into one. Ignorance is the biggest barrier to change and acceptance. May you break down these barriers by educating others and by continuing to educate yourselves.

My wish is that you will consider our history and mistakes of the past, not to feel guilty, but to make better decisions for our future.   I hope you will take these lessons you learned and use them for good; that you will educate your families, your friends, your classmates and, yes, even your teachers.

You have the knowledge and the creativity to be the change, to be the next generation and, in doing so, to create a better future for your children and your grandchildren.

Thank you for your leader ship, your open minds and your open hearts. May they continue to grow and influence others.  I hope you know more than you did before and, I hope you understand that, when you know better, you are obligated to do better.  May you do better.

Parenting was hard enough before the elf on the shelf

I try to keep my head above water, pack the lunches, organize the school bags, check the agendas, pack for swimming, ballet, gymnastics, arrange the carpools, book the dentist appointments, organize the birthday parties, sign the field trip forms, etc. etc. it is not easy and, if I am being honest, I can barely manage it but I somehow kept it going until…the elf the shelf.

For those of you who are not familiar, this cute little doll magically appears one month before Christmas to watch your kids and report back to Santa.  Each morning, the children find it perched in a different spot where it can see what they are doing and if they are being naughty or nice.  Seems simple enough right? WRONG.

Suddenly elves are playing checkers with carefully posed stuffed animals, making snow angels in sugar on the kitchen table, dressed in designer clothes cruising with Barbie in the Malibu mobile, fighting Darth Vader action figures with plastic light sabres.  Not only do these super elves engage in these fabulous activities, but the parents post the photos on Instagram and Facebook leaving my kids to wonder: What’s wrong with our elf? Why did we get this lazy, underachieving elf?  Sometimes she even forgets to move!  Is there something we can do?  

The people with the good elves, coincidentally, are also the ones whose tooth fairies leave handwritten notes and put the tooth money in coloured glitter water.  My children know that our teeth must not have been brushed well enough to earn the note or special water, the tooth fairy has occasionally been so disappointed in my kid’s teeth that she didn’t even bother to take them.  When she does, they only get $1.00 or $2.00 and she never leaves them a gift!

The other day, our dog took a fondness to our elf on the shelf.  He grabbed her from the shelf and mauled her a little bit.  She made it out a little worse for the wear (darn) and now is recovering from her ordeal but may be a little slow moving for a while.  We will be patient with her through her rehabilitation progress.

For those of you, who, like me, have a lazy elf, do not despair.  Teach your children to appreciate your elf for who she is, not what she does and, if that doesn’t work, think about getting a dog.

I am Canadian

I am Canadian.  I watch 3 down football, hockey and curling.  I live on treaty land. I speak French and English. I wear a toque in the winter. I have seen both Celine Dion and Michael Buble in concert. I drink beer, Tim Horton's coffee and eat poutine. I have free health care. I say "please", "thank you" , "excuse me" and "sorry" all the time, and I probably say "eh" a lot too although I don't even realize it and will likely deny it!

I am so proud to live in the True North Strong and Free and, up until yesterday, a place I naively considered to be safe from many of the senseless acts of terror that seem to happen in other places in the world.

When I was a young, impressionable teen, I had a dream for my future.  I was obsessed with federal politics, I even watched the parliamentary debates on t.v.  I wanted to be the Prime Minister of Canada.

In 1989 I had the opportunity to travel to Ottawa as part of the Terry Fox Youth Centre's Encounters with Canada Program.  The first time I laid eyes on the Parliament Buildings, I felt a sense of awe that I had never known. Pride and a connection to my heritage, to my roots and to my ancestors who helped found this land and the principles, rights and freedoms that I hold dear and strive live up to every day as a Canadian.  I wanted to be a part of that, to connect the past to the future and to represent the people of Canada.

This dream changed as I entered University and discovered that my passion for serving others through politics was equaled with a passion, and talent, for serving others through education.  Instead of a politician, I became a teacher.  Instead of representing the citizens of my country, I was educating them.

Many years later, in 2009, I returned to Ottawa with a group of students as part of an electronic journalism project.  That feeling of awe returned, perhaps in even a more powerful, profound way as I stepped into the House of Commons and was able to share that pride with my students who were connecting with their Canadian heritage for the first time.

Yesterday, someone tried to take that pride away from us, to rob us of that feeling of security that comes with being a Canadian, that inherent trust in the goodness and kindness of others and the safety of walking freely in our streets, our parks and public places.

Yesterday, someone took the life of a young man who was committed to protecting the rights and freedoms that we hold dear in front of a monument that represents the thousands of Canadians who made the ultimate sacrifice before him in order to guarantee those rights for us.  This, to me is symbolic.  This act of violence reinforces my Canadian belief in, and right to peace.

 Let his sacrifice not go in vain.  Let us unite in standing for the Fundamental Freedoms that define us as Canadians.  Let us reflect on those in the world who are not so fortunate and who do not have the freedoms we so often take for granted.  Let us be stronger and better Canadians through this reflection.  Let us use our gifts to serve others in our homes, our communities, our provinces, our territories, our country and the world!

I might be naive, I might be simplistic, I might be too polite, I might have too much faith in human kind and the goodness of people but that's okay because I am Canadian and that's just how we are eh?