Knowing that it takes all of us – men, women, children – everyone, from all walks of life, to protect and enhance fundamental human rights in this country, I have raised my daughter to clearly know the democratic process. It’s been important, but also sort of a blast, to bestow the knowledge.
When she was a young toddler, thanks to the suffragette’s song in the Mary Poppins movie, we often marched around the living room shouting Votes For Women! When she was three there was a federal election, and I toured her through every step of the voting process in the small town where we were living at the time. She held my hand and listened, walking through the sanctity of the voting station with me, and then asking me if I voted for Jan. She had seen her friend’s mom at the voting booth and figured she was running for Prime Minister.
By the time she was four, the Famous Five monument had been installed at Olympic Plaza and we made a pilgrimage to the city to see it. We talked about how some of the women honoured in the monument had lived right there in those very streets, as they worked so hard for women’s rights – including the right to vote and hold office. We were both so excited to finally see the statues and when we finally got to the plaza, she promptly jumped into the lap of one of them (who was depicted sitting on a chair with a cup of tea) and stuck her finger up her nose! She was, after all, just a preschooler.
What about now, when human rights are failing around the world, including right here at home. When those very statues are, in an eerie foreshadowing, boxed up with tight lids and placed in storage. What can we say to young people now, as they grow up under the thumb of oppression everywhere they turn. When microphones are cut off mid-sentence at ‘public’ forums, when the news is filled with vitriol that no one could have imagined even a few short years ago.
Well, we can exercise our right (and our obligation) to vote in the municipal election on October 20th, for starters.
(I was thrilled to see the Votes for Women banner while visiting the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg!)