"No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world." - Robin Williams

Today was the last day of the Amnesty Conference and the atmosphere was electric. There was an air of excitement and energy that could probably light up Paris for a few years. The youth were so excited to march down to Parliament Hill. We were all ready with Amnesty shirts and bright smiles.When it came time, around 9:30am, we all started our march down, and everyone was talking to everyone. We were so excited to go down to our rally. 

We marched all the way from the Amnesty headquarters to Parliament Hill where we had a team waiting for us with signs and material so that when we got there, we could go and head straight to action. When we got there, we organized into groups and many of us wore a blindfold to symbolize torture and to encourage Canada from turning a blind eye to torture. 

We had a huge crowd come out. Like gigantic. With MPs and senators as well! The support was overwhelming. We were able to hear speeches from Amnesty International representatives, youth leaders, torture survivors and Members of Parliament as well. It was insanely awesome. I'd never been so proud to be a youth activist. 

To stand with so many other activist who cared and was just as passionate as I was ... that was truly inspiring and heartwarming. Hearing from victims of violence, youth, Members of Parliament and finally, from those who had been working on the campaign for so long for these past two years really validated that sense of purpose for me. It renewed this spark within me and made me want to push further. While some of us were on the hill, at the same time, there was a press conference inside

the Hill with several people, including Amnesty International Secretary General Alex Neve and my fellow Youth Organizer Athavarn, who were speaking on the importance of ending torture. 

These past two days, I have seen these amazing, passionate youth across Ontario and Quebec who came out to support the issue of torture. I wonder what amazing ideas and things could manifest if we were able to fly out youth passionate about human rights from all over Canada. It would be quite a sight to see. 

As a bit of an old foggy myself, I'm really excited to see this happen in real life one day. With the world becoming a smaller and smaller place, I know a national conference, with all the youth in Canada is definitely possible. I can't wait! Today we took one step of many to combat torture. Tomorrow we take another step. And another and another. And we'll keep going until it is gone and it becomes something of history - something that belongs in a museum. Until then, us youth and Amnesty International will continue our push for torture. And we'll continue the fight for human rights, civil liberties and freedom.

Next stop for me, the UN! But first - sleep.

“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.