The public bathroom can be a major source of anxiety for transgender youth. Using a public restroom may result in their status being discovered. If they identify as transgender and have not yet revealed their identity, they may feel like an imposter. Worse yet, trans teens may be subject to ridicule, abuse or assault, physical […]
Aboriginal right – or wrong?
Two eleven-year-old girls from neighbouring First Nations in southwestern Ontario were diagnosed last year with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a cancer of the bone marrow. Both received chemotherapy, then stopped. One has died. Makayla Sault of the Missisaugas of the New Credit, after eleven weeks, told her parents that the treatments were “killing her,” and discontinued […]
Mitigating Children’s Involvement in Maritime Piracy
Observations by the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative Introduction Recently, the Canadian Forces Maritime Warfare Centre (CFMWC) had the honour of hosting the prestigious Multilateral XII Wargame, an annual event that convenes representatives from eight of the western hemisphere’s most potent navies. In the past, game scenarios have sought to replicate the catastrophic conditions […]
One Edmonton Youth in Conflict with the Law: A Case Study
We have all been there at one point in time: young, insecure, and impressionable. You would do anything to fit in: wear the right clothes; listen to the proper music; dislike the right people and share the same opinions as all the cool kids. But what if the cool kids were the RCMP acting as […]
International Charter on Prevention of FASD
The First International Conference on Prevention of FASD (Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder) was held in Edmonton, Canada from September 23 to 25, 2013. The following Charter was endorsed and adopted by the delegates at the meeting, who included about 700 people from 35 countries around the world; senior government officials, scholars and policy makers, parents […]
Age of Criminal Responsibility: An illusive dilemma
If we, as adults, reflect back on our youth, there is probably not one of us who can say we didn’t commit some type of infraction for which we could have been held accountable under the former welfare-oriented Juvenile Delinquency Act (JDA) – in effect from 1908 until 1984 – or the more legalistic approach of the […]
