Young Voices

Six indigenous youth from across Canada travelled to Geneva, Switzerland this month telling the United Nations that Canada needs to end inequalities experienced by aboriginal children. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child will review Canada’s compliance with the convention later this year—these youth hope to influence the process and outcome of the evaluation.

Over the last few years, I have encountered a strange conversation amongst my co-workers. It comes up occasionally, each time with a different group of people and a multitude of opinions. The enthusiasm for this topic has long fascinated me, as it seems far too ordinary a thing to elicit such emotion from people.

The hot button topic: the best place to buy Farmer’s sausage.

When Kelsey Enns started at the North End Family Centre, Winnipeg, he stood out from everyone else using the drop-in centre.

Like many people his age, Joel Wiens would like to buy a smartphone. He could probably afford to buy one now, but that would mean taking from the money he and his wife Jacquelyn typically earmark for their church donation.

With raucous shouts of “Occupy Advent,” the youths of Langley Mennonite Fellowship interrupted the worship service on the first Sunday of the Christmas season.

Assisted by many of the church’s children, the “occupiers” entered banging drums, beating on pots and pans, and carrying protest signs with slogans saying, “The beginning is near!” and, “What would Jesus want for Christmas?”

It has been six months since Canadian Mennonite first launched the Young Voices section, website and blogs. We have covered peace rallies, RV trips, new businesses and art. As well as contributors from across the country, we’ve had submissions come in from France and Egypt.

When Daniel Eggert was growing up in Edmonton’s First Mennonite Church, there were 12 other people his age in Sunday school. From that group, only he and one other person still attend the church today. The other 11 have stopped going to church or they attend services elsewhere.

Ask Dustin Bueckert if he thinks incorporating his faith into his day job is important, and he will tell you yes.

“Freedom is coming. . . . Justice is coming, oh yes I know.”

While many people in the area and across Canada congregated to watch cannons being fired and soldiers marching, more than a hundred people gathered in Winnipeg to sing for peace on Remembrance Day.

Last year, during my last few months of university, I started thinking about what to do after graduation. Like many people my age, I wanted to travel and experience something different before settling down and joining the job market.

Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) made headlines earlier this month when it launched its new Redekop School of Business, made possible through a donation from the Redekop family of B.C.’s Fraser Valley. Brothers John and Peter, their nephew James and the extended family have pledged a minimum of $6.5 million to found the school.