Students discuss impact of nuclear weapons and nuclear disarmament
After attending the Youth Nuclear Peace Summit at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, students Madison Bell, Amelia Macfarlane and Sophia Bahara from Lord Selkirk Regional Comprehensive Secondary School had the opportunity to attend the First Youth-Parliament Nuclear Summit in Ottawa and shared their voices at the event in Ottawa.
It all started with a project that the group did for the Youth Nuclear Peace Summit at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights along with Jakob Dainard, Carley Catellier, and Sydney Ostermann.
“We had prepared for quite a while our presentation then present there. There were other schools there from Manitoba and we also had keynote speakers as well. We also heard from Dr. Ira Helfand who’s a Nobel Peace Prize winner,” said Bahara a LSRCSS grade 12 student.
The group’s presentation was about Nuclear Weapons Then and Now.
“We each had different points on the subject and we all had our own slides. When we presented it, it was about 10 minutes,” said Macfarlane, a LSRCSS grade 11 student.
“I think it went pretty well. We had a lot of time to prepare and practice for it,” said Bell, a LSRCSS grade 11 student.
This isn’t the first time that Selkirk students have attended the event at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights but it is the first time that they made the trip to Ottawa.
Kathleen Elgar the teacher involved in this project explained that the students learned about nuclear weaponry and its effects and Canada’s involvement. There was also emphasis on where we go in the future with disarmament being a key topic of conversation as students of today will inherit a very complicated political situation if something isn’t done to resolve it.
Nuclear weapons also create many other issues beyond the threat of violence with environmental effects and the human impact of mining and testing nuclear weapons also being explored.
Bell explained that their trip to Ottawa was a quick addition to their schedules.
“When we were at the [Canadian]Museum [for Human Rights], they kept talking about this summit they were having in Ottawa. One of the senators who attended the summit in Winnipeg was funding for different schools to go to Ottawa and see the summit,” she said.
The group decided to go and a couple of weeks later the students made the trip.
Bahara said that it was a very interesting experience attending The First Youth-Parliament Nuclear Summit in Ottawa. They were able to go to the parliament buildings as well as hear from some very interesting people.
Macfarlane highly recommends that students join this program and learn more about nuclear weapons.
“Before I joined this I actually knew nothing about the threat of nuclear bombs and nuclear weapons. I didn’t even think it was much of a threat. I didn’t realize how much our world still has and how much we still have to dismantle before getting to a nuclear free world. I think lots of people don’t know about that and I think it’d be a great thing for kids to learn about,” she said.
Bahara agrees recommending the problem be looked at through a humanitarian approach.
“It affects so many people across the world. It’s not just whoever the bomb drops on. It affects the whole world. We can look at how it disproportionately affects women, people of colour, or just everyone in our world in general. I think that’s a really good step to get people involved and people understand that this is a really important cause,” she said.
“You don’t have to be an expert on nuclear peace to back it up and to be part of the movement,” said Bell.
Elgar is proud of her students’ accomplishments being able to speak directly to politicians and express their views.
“They were the only high school students that were there. There were some university students but we were the only high school students. It was a very intimate setting. They were called by their first names and they were able to speak their thoughts and ideas and ask questions and present to the MPs and senators so it was not what I expected it to be, but they were excellent ambassadors for Selkirk and I’m super proud of them,” said Elgar.
