Youth conference to be held at the U of O
Andrew Ikeman | Fulcrum Staff
Photo courtesy of Crystal Hajjar
THE UNIVERSITY OF Ottawa will play host to students from around the country for a four-day conference that promises to, according to its website “build an environmental and climate justice movement that can transform our society, so that our future can be enjoyed by everyone, not only those who can afford it.”
Gabrielle Arkett, one of the conference’s volunteer organizers, said they expect several hundred youth to converge in the nation’s capital Oct. 26–29 for the youth summit, entitled PowerShift.
“PowerShift is an environmental conference happening on campus at the end of October; it’s organized by youth, for youth,” said Arkett. “It’s a national conference; we are hoping to have several hundred youth from all across Canada come and learn about various issues related to climate and environmental justice, and also learn various direct-action skills to help them build a nation-wide social movement for action on climate change.”
The conference will be held on campus and will feature several keynote speakers including former Coalition large de l’Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois and native rights activist Winona LaDuke. The Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) has promoted the event both on campus and by linking the event’s website on their homepage.
“Our involvement has mostly been in terms of helping them with promotion—through the website, social media, emails,” said Anne-Marie Roy, the SFUO’s vp communications. “We decided to support them because we think that student engagement is very important, and the nature of PowerShift is definitely that. It’s encouraging youth, and our generation, and students in universities to get involved to bring positive social change to our communities.”
Meghan Stanley, a second-year student in international studies and modern languages, is excited to see an event like PowerShift come to the U of O.
“I think [the summit] is a great idea,” said Stanley. “I think it’s important for youth to get involved, especially as the Canadian administration has backed off green initiatives. It’s really great that youth [are] getting involved.”
PowerShift summits began in 2007 in Washington, D.C. and have since been held in Australia, Canada, the U.K., and the U.S., with New Zealand organizing their first summit this year. Notable speakers for the D.C. conferences included former vice president and Nobel laureate Al Gore and environmentalist Van Jones. The first PowerShift summit in Canada was held in 2009 in Ottawa, and was attended by over 1,000 youth from across the country.
