Niverville teen seeks funds for Ottawa summit

A Niverville high school student has asked the Hanover School Division board to pay for a trip to Ottawa so that she and another student may attend a nuclear peace summit.

Edlynne Paez made the request last week stating the cost for the trip is $1,100 per person which covers airfare and all expenses. The Youth-Parliament Nuclear Summit will take place in February in Ottawa with students from across the country attending. The summit discusses issues associated with nuclear weapons proliferation and their disarmament.

“I’m really hoping to have a deeper more intimate understanding of how exactly these bills get talked about because I know we’re going to be sitting in on some of the summit meetings. I’m really hoping to sit in on the House of Commons,” she said.

She said youth should be involved in the summit because it’s their future and the threat of nuclear war is strong. She believes the resources and money needed to make nuclear weapons could be better used for education and health care.

“It’s our land that we are standing on. This is the world that we’re going to inherit making our voices all the more important… We shouldn’t be afraid to challenge the norm and the beliefs of the people that are leading us because that’s how you get engaged. That’s how you get real change that’s going to benefit more people. It’s through conversation, it’s through good arguments.”

The 17-year-old calls herself a political nerd saying that while kids her age have favourite sports heroes or pop stars, her heroes are parliamentarians. One of her favourites is House Speaker Greg Fergus with whom she had a 20-minute conversation about Taylor Swift during a conference she attended last year in Ottawa.

“I would think of myself as somebody who is very politically literate. I’ve been with the Youth Parliament of Manitoba since last year, which is kind of like a debate camp for kids to learn about the process that bills go through, so I feel like I’m more politically literate than most kids my age,” she said, noting her parents are “conservatively supportive” of her political interests as they feel a girl her age should be out shopping and not attending debate club.

Paez is involved with many social justice issues in her school. She’s one of the founding members of her school’s student action group, which has promoted Indigenous education, multicultural awareness, and ecological projects such as the school’s composting program.

“Eddy for the longest time has been a proponent for student voices and has been passionate about social justice, anti-racism, anti-violence education efforts and so I’ve been a second in command trying to help facilitate different events. We had some MLAs come out and support anti-racism at our school and that was all Eddy,” said Tony Clark, Paez’s teacher advisor.

Paez hopes to go to the University of Ottawa to study political science. She’s interested in its joint honours program in political science and public policy as well as its co-op program.

“I think there would be some really amazing placement opportunities there and you can also become interns for the parliament building, their Senate page program, their House of Commons page program, there’s just so many opportunities for youth to get involved in government in the capital, that’s my hope, fingers crossed.”

“I’d either like to work in government or law something that’s working in policy or working in upper education as a university professor. I enjoy working and speaking with people. I love arguing, I like stating my case. I think any place where I can speak publicly is a place where I would thrive,” she said.

Paez has some parting words for her peers. She said coming from a rural town such as Niverville can feel like “you’re speaking into the void and you’re standing in an echo chamber of this is how it’s always been and this is how it will always be done and there’s nothing we can do to change that.”

“I think that defeatist mind set is exactly what stops young people from succeeding. I’ve met so many young people from rural Manitoba, from Hanover, that have the capacity to do great things, but they just don’t have the opportunities set up for them. I think it’s really important that if you don’t see the opportunities for yourself make it for yourself.

“My entire high school carer I have spent challenging The Man saying this is wrong, I don’t believe this, you should let us do this x, y, and z. I would not be nearly as far as I am without having spent my time getting angry and challenging people and I think that’s something really valuable to say to someone who was in my shoes a couple of years ago.”