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Mon
24
Oct

Canada: Child soldier survivor creates foundation for change in Sierra Leone

CBC News

Fazineh Keita trying to build a community centre to help prevent kids from facing the same reality he did.

At eight years old, kids are usually thinking about what mom is making for dinner and how long they can get away with playing video games. 

Fazineh Keita's reality was much different growing up during the civil war in Sierra Leone.

Now living in Vancouver, Keita is reflecting on his past while trying to change the future for children in his native land. 

His charity, Innocence Lost Foundation, aims to help provide resources and rehabilitation services to former child soldiers and give kids a chance to be kids.

Read more here.

Tue
10
May

Canada: Demilitarize Dawson.

Travelling the world, getting a free education, and having rent and food payed for sounds like a pretty good deal. The only catch: being used as a tool for an imperial system based on violence and oppression, suffer from PTSD as a likely result, and would then not be helped as your condition would worsen. This kind of deal was exactly what the soldiers recruiting at my school were offering.

Standing proud in their uniforms, the soldiers offered a variety of brochures to students that stopped by their stand. Beside them was a poster that looked like a scene from the latest action movie portraying special forces with assault rifles. To most, there is not much of a problem up to now. But let me tell you a story:

Thu
05
Nov

Talent show shines light on child soldiers

By Jessica Peters, Chilliwack Progress

Kids aren't ready to be soldiers.

They're ready to jump and play, to kick a ball with friends, to dance, to sing, and to learn.

But there are as many as 300,000 children used in conflicts around the world, a common practice in countries embroiled in conflict, including Sierra Leone.

Now that the African country is rebuilding itself, a new organization with Chilliwack roots is eager to help repair some of the damage done to the children there.

The Innocence Lost Foundation was founded by Fazineh Keita and Ava Vanderstarren, who met while studying at Vancouver Film School. Keita was used as a child soldier in the Sierra Leone civil war, and now is a political activist working to bring democratic change with his music.

Wed
14
Oct

Former child soldier brings his story to kids in graphic novel

By: May Warren

Michel Chikwanine, a former child soldier, has collaborated on a new graphic novel about his experiences.

Abducted at age 5 from his school’s soccer field, Michel Chikwanine was forced to do unimaginable things as a child soldier in Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Now a 27-year-old African studies student at the University of Toronto, Chikwanine has co-authored a new graphic novel about his experiences called Child Soldier: When Boys and Girls are Used in War, aimed at kids 10 to 14.

Chikwanine, who wrote the book with Jessica Dee Humphreys, said he hopes it will help young people understand what being a child soldier means.

Mon
17
Aug

Harper Announces Expansion of Junior Canadian Rangers

Prime Minister Stephen Harper today announced that a re-elected Conservative government would expand the number of Junior Canadian Rangers by 15% to 5,000. This expansion will be completed in time for the 20th anniversary of the permanent establishment of the Junior Canadian Rangers, in 2018.

Junior Canadian Rangers, aged 12-18, are taught traditional skills, life skills, and Ranger skills in 135 remote and isolated communities across Canada. The Junior Canadian Rangers are affiliated with the Canadian Rangers, who support national security and public safety objectives and act as the military’s eyes and ears in northern, coastal and isolated areas of Canada.

Mon
16
Mar

Henry A Giroux War on youth

HISTORIES OF VIOLENCE: Henry A. Giroux provides the 2nd Histories of Violence Annual Lecture

Henry A Giroux War on youth
Mon
16
Feb

Youth and Militarism Conference: Canada

Youth in Canada - particularly young people of faith - are increasingly concerned about militarism in our society; and how this affects them.

These concerns include (but are not limited to)
• the causes of war (including inequality),
• the militarization of entertainment,
• the intersection with gender,
• national identity,
• technological influence,
• infiltration into our educational institutions, and
• a lack of effective empowerment for youth who are
called to be peacemakers.

Tue
10
Feb

Canada: Military training for high school credits questioned at meeting

A new programme that gives credits to students for military training has its first participants in Regina, Canada. The programme heavily criticised by the peace activists who previously mobilized with a petition to stop it begins this month with its first enrolees. As part of the programme, the students will complete basic military training and earn two high school credits for it.

Thu
25
Sep

Canadian military spent thousands on Xbox Live recruitment ads

There are a lot of young men who play Call of Duty on their Xbox consoles, so it makes sense that the government would use Xbox Live as a billboard for recruitment ads for the Canadian Forces.

In case you weren’t aware, Xbox consoles connected to Microsoft’s online service show paid advertisements on the system’s main menu screen. The Ottawa Citizen reports  the Department of National Defence and Canadian Armed Forces started paying for these ads between 2006-07. So much of the ads likely appeared on the Xbox 360.

Documents say the purpose of the ads was indeed to reach an audience of males between the ages of 18-24. The audience is described as “18-24-year-olds, male & female, looking for adventure & excitement and/or interested in helping others.”

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