CDS Students Participate in Lafontaine-Baldwin Youth Conference

On Friday, we headed to the Sharon Temple, which was founded by The Children of Peace, a religious group which is a faction of the Quakers. They believed in being “peacefully violent”, which means to boldly fight for what is right, but not in a violent manner. After arriving, we attended a Smudging Ceremony, allowing us to experience a glimpse of Indigenous culture. A Smudging Ceremony is when various herbs, most commonly white sage, are burned and the smoke is then used to cleanse and purify a space, objects, and the soul.

Next, we headed inside the Temple for a speech by Elder John Rice, who taught us about the Anishinaabe Governance system. We learned about the seven different Clans in their society, and how each contributed to enhancing the life of their community. Each unique Clan had separate roles such as protecting children, adopting orphans, teaching, building, strategy making, warriors, etc. Within each Clan, were seven more subcategories, so each person could work with their strengths to choose which specific role they wanted to play in society. He also explained how women were the idea designers, whereas the men spoke about such ideas in their meetings. In addition, when a conflict arises between two individuals, whole families work together to repair their relationship so that they become companions again. We have never heard of a system of government like this before, and Mr. Rice’s speech made us all realize the benefits of having a Clan system and utilizing different perspectives to better build a community. 

This was then followed by a speech from John Ralston Saul, who spoke about responsible government and pre-confederation. He discussed Robert Baldwin and Louis Lafontaine's contributions to Canadian society, as they started the first responsible government in Canada, where the elected relied on the people's support, instead of a monarch. Mr. Saul also discussed how The Children of Peace created a fair Credit Union, in which people could borrow money with low-interest rates, to decrease the poverty of citizens. He discussed how the Temple is an Egalitarianism Temple, which means it represents equal rights and opportunities in terms of democracy. In addition, he spoke about how Canada used to have a triangular governance system, in which the Anglophones, Francophones, and Indigenous peoples worked together. Our efforts to make amends for Canada's despicable actions toward Indigenous people go back to this idea of working with them to govern; we’re actually going full circle. Lastly, he spoke about why it is important to not become a Monolithic nation-state, have a balance between individualism versus financial governance, and why taxes do Canadians much more good than harm, due to our healthcare system, roads, institutions, etc. This thought-provoking speech left all of us in awe of Mr. Saul's ability to effectively argue and convey a message. We even had the honour of speaking to Mr. Saul after his speech, where we discussed current social and political issues happening around the world. 

After this, Erica Kelly discussed her way of governing today with Anishinaabe principles at her school in Sutton. She taught us about the importance of what she does for a living, and how it helps build kids into better people as they grow older. The statistics highlighting their success at Sutton High School helping students from Georgina Island First Nations revealed how a concerted effort can make a difference.

Lastly, TVO’s Steve Paikin conducted a Live Radio Session summing up what we learned and discussed throughout the conference. We will take what we learned with us for the rest of our lives, and now hope to maybe try and find ways to incorporate Anishinaabe governance in our school community.