Democracy Week holds panel for U of O education students
Andrew Ikeman | Fulcrum Staff
Photo by Sean Done
Elections Canada has been taking their Democracy Week from coast to coast talking to students about democracy and the democratic process. As part of the event, a panel was held in Ottawa on Sept. 19, in which five leaders in civic education had the chance to speak to University of Ottawa education students
The second annual Democracy Week, which coincides with the United Nations’ International Day of Democracy on Sept. 15, was organized with the help of Elections Canada and Chief Electoral Officer Marc Mayrand.
“Elections Canada has a mandate to…inform Canadians about their electoral process,” said Mayrand. “Two years ago, when the United Nations established the International Day of Democracy—on September 15th of each year—we thought it would be a great opportunity to make a larger event celebrating Canadian democracy, and that’s what brought us here today.”
The panel included Mayrand; Léo Duguay, president of the Canadian Association of Former Parliamentarians; Paul Taillefer, president of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation; Taylor Gunn, president of CIVIX; and Jeremy Diamond of the Historica-Dominion Institute. Gunn, whose charity CIVIX is known for its Student Vote program, said he was happy to sit on the panel as it gave him a chance to talk to future teachers, the people his charity works most closely with.
“We [CIVIX] run programs for students, we train teachers, and we do research for everyone,” said Gunn. “Our main flagship program is a parallel election for students under the voting age. In the last federal election, we had half a million students across Canada learn[ing] all about the issues and then casting a ballot on the official candidates in their district.”
The panel, which focused on how future teachers can educate students on democracy and what resources are available to help them, was chaired by U of O alumni and Ottawa city councillor Mathieu Fleury, who expressed his thoughts for future panels.
“I think we need to open it up to other faculties and other individuals,” said Fleury. “As much as possible, [we should be] offering bilingual service. We had a lot of discussions afterwards, and a lot of the panelists were bilingual. I know it was hosted for the English side of the [education] faculty, but it would have been better if it was more inclusive.”
The panel formed part of a series of professional development workshops hosted by the U of O’s faculty of education.
Jessica Whitley, a U of O education professor who gave the first address of the night, said students’ reactions to the event have been positive.
“I’ve talked to quite a few students since [the panel was held],” said Whitley. “A lot of them said to me afterwards that it opened their eyes to the kind of role they can play in the classroom, in terms of building awareness among their students about democracy in general, about the different processes at work in Canada, [and] about different ways they can have their opinions heard and make change.”
