“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Mead

What a crazy, crazy day. I started it off at 5am! It was out of Toronto for me and off to Ottawa for the Amnesty International Youth Stop Torture Conference. We were all getting together to rally to push the government to sign the Optional Protocol Against Torture as well as to learn and receive training. I got on the first streetcar and it led me out down to a subway station.. however, with my luck, there were signal problems and the TTC announced that there would be a delay of "up to 15 minutes." I stood there in emotional turmoil as I battled it out in my brain, would I rather run or take a chance and run down to the train station? 

I ran. 

Wrong choice. As I was running down Yonge, I heard the sound of the first subway train through the sewer grate and ... actually, my internal monologue wasn't appropriate then and it isn't appropriate now. Long story short, I MADE THE TRAIN! And I saw a few of the Youth Organizers from Toronto, but since we were all scattered around, it was a bit difficult to talk to each other. So I took out my computer, read the news, napped a bit and worked on the speech I was going to give later that night to Members of Parliament and Senators. 

When we finally arrived in Ottawa, I got to say hi to all the Youth Organizers and may I just say, what a super cool, motivated and passionate bunch. I know it makes me old to say this, but I'm glad our future's in good hands. We ended up taking a taxi to the office and there we had some delicious lunch, sat down, introduced ourselves and started our first section, which was listening to Osiris and Nora Lopez-Chavez, daughter and wife of tortured and disappeared Honduran journalist Jose Eduardo Lopez. Roy Samanthanam, Canadian Tamil refugee who experienced torture and ill-treatment when returning to Sri Lanka for his wedding, and Naser Al Raas, a survivor of Torture in Bahrain when he went to visit during the Arab Spring.

After the very solemn and eye opening experience of listening and asking question to these survivors of torture, it was time for all of Youth at Amnesty to head over to Parliament for a reception with Members of Parliament and Senators! Unfortunately, no matter how hard we plan, sometimes, things just don't work out as expected. The bus was almost 20 minutes late and at around 3:50, the traffic in Ottawa was bad (especially with all the construction!). In the time that we went 3 blocks, I could have probably walked faster. Yeah. Traffic was that bad. It was so bad that we were afraid that myself and Odelie would miss the opening speeches. So ... we hopped out of the bus ...

... and we ran to the reception. 

✓ Run through downtown Ottawa, through Rideau Centre and through a university campus in heels, check.

My God was I out of shape. By the time we got to the reception... the bus filled with all the students was actually right behind us. And I was drenched in sweat (perfect time to talk to dignitaries right).

I went through the medal detector and ran downstairs where I was greeted by this very lovely room with delicious looking treats (they had these delicious chocolate covered fruits but I didn't get any because I had to go to the front [I was sad]) and a bunch of dignitaries, assistants, senators and others. 

I insisted we take a selfie. He obliged.

I was drenched and struggling to take off my blazer to try to stop sweating. It was not successful. It was also then that I was introduced to Alex Neve, the Secretary General of Amnesty International. I made a joke, saying we ran all the way there because we cared so damn much about the issue of torture and didn't want to miss it and he gave me a hug. A HUG!!! He was laughing and was just an all-around general happy, nice guy. I liked him. Great guy to lead Amnesty. Persistent too.

Stephane Dion, Minister of Global Affairs

And then it was time to start and do speeches. Alex kicked us off and introduced everything. It was really wonderful, he is a well-spoken man. He introduced Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion to the crowd. And what he said blew us all away. 

"As of today, the Optional Protocol will 
no longer be Optional." - Dion

How... How insane is that. My speech, and I'm sure most of the other dignitaries and torture survivor's speeches, were all centered around Canada signing OPCAT. That was what the conference was for. That was what us youth came to Ottawa for. That was why we signed petitions.

And through this advocacy, we did it. 

Chalk one up to for the good guys.

Smiling crowd. Made it easier.

The whole room burst into applause. I couldn't believe it. But today, Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion promised, at an Amnesty International Canada reception with 10 MPs & Senators from 4 parties to launch consultations with the Provinces and Territories. And we must understand. Torture isn't a partisan issue. It's a human issue.  It has been 13 long years since Canada has promised to sign OPCAT. It was kind of embarrassing speaking after Mr. Dion, since so much of my speech was centered around signing OPCAT. But I knew it was important to speak, to show them why and how the youth of Canada cared so much.

As a human rights activist myself, I personally can’t imagine being locked away for speaking up for fundamental freedoms and protections – let alone being tortured for it. Yet around the world, activists constantly take risks to stand up for what they believe in. Many are jailed, and behind closed doors…anything can happen. And in other countries, this “anything” does happen. It happens to students who speak up against wrong and stand up for what they believe in.

I can’t even imagine the deep detrimental psychological effects of torture on students so young.

Presenting the petitions (I accidentally
ripped the box)

When I spoke, I spoke for my fellow youth activists around the world. I'm in my early 20s and it is heartbreaking to hear in the news that someone my age and sometimes even younger, around the world, is arrested for speaking out against injustice – punished for speaking out against oppression, racism, sexism, things that many of us sometimes take for granted. To think that they may even be further punished for their actions through use of torture… is something I can’t imagine. It’s something I don’t want to imagine.

I never want to be arrested and secretly tortured for advocating for basic rights and liberties or even for my own beliefs and ideas.

To even try to tackle this issue around the world, we must first start at home. If we want governments abroad to stop torturing and open their doors to the world to prove that, then we must first look to ourselves.

Naser Al Raas speaking.

Much like genocide, torture is a crime that defines a society. I never want torture to define our Canadian society. In fact, I want Canada to be as far away from torture as possible. I want Canada to show that we are leaders in this fight against torture by not only saying that they will sign OPCAT but actually implementing and doing something to help the fight against it. Mr. Dion failed to mention details of when and how the Government would implement OPCAT. But they must. Not only to fulfil their promise but to show the world "Canada's back."

Canada now has this opportunity to lead by example and take one more step towards abolishing torture. In the past, Canada has paved the way for human rights, with Lester B. Pearson inventing the practice of peacekeeping, Stephen Lewis pursing the cause of humanitarianism and Brian Mulroney standing up to apartheid in South Africa. Canada has always led the way.

Today I watched Canadian human rights history unfold.

I watched the power of advocacy and I watched the power of thousands of signatures, youth activism through posting on twitter, blogging, hosting meetings, signing petitions and sending countless letters, change our world. Through these signatures, the youth of today have entrusted the Canadian government to be a model of ending torture through transparency.

We met Mohamed Fahmy!!

This end of the two-year campaign Stop Torture was truly powerful. It ended in such an amazing success. Many of the youth today were missing school to show how much they cared about torture and supporting torture survivors. Torture survivors came up to Ottawa to speak up against injustice. Mohamed Fahmy was even there to speak about the issues. 

This was a truly amazing reception. Looking back on this now, I'm still in shock.. To have seen so many youth standing in the room, all across Ontario and Quebec against torture. Amnesty has gathered a crowd of young people here to show that we care about the issue of torture. To think that a human rights group completely changed the landscape of Canadian policy on torture...that's something to give you hope.

Yes, I am indeed on Dion's twitter feed.