1 / 1 Lakehead University’s Bora Laskin Faculty of Law hosts some key figures in Canadian human rights history on Oct. 25 as part of a forum and book launch of the newly released anthology titled Canadian Human Rights Champions — The Arduous Journey. The anthology, written by Peter Globensky, left, and Beverly Sabourin, right, features a compilation of 38 Canadian champions of human and environmental rights.Nicky Shaw Advertisement
THUNDER BAY — Lakehead University’s Bora Laskin Faculty of Law hosted some key figures in Canadian human rights history on Saturday as part of a forum and book launch of the newly released anthology titled Canadian Human Rights Champions — The Arduous Journey.
The anthology, written by Peter Globensky and Beverly Sabourin, featured a compilation of 38 Canadian champions of human and environmental rights.
Stella Bowles, one of the featured youth champions in the book from Nova Scotia, said she was honoured to be a part of it and featured alongside so many other “incredible people who have created change.”
“This book is very empowering. There are so many people who have done great things for their communities through activism and I really think it’s inspiring for anyone who reads it, especially younger people like myself. Maybe it’s the spark they need to create a difference,” Bowles said.
Bowles was responsible for the formation of a $15.7 million river cleanup project that began after she created a Facebook page with her parents’ help for her Grade 6 science fair project, testing the LaHave River for fecal bacteria.
She said she had learned about 600 illegal straight pipes flushing raw sewage directly from homes into their beautiful river.
“It created a stir in the community and really everyone came together to create a plan to clean up our river,” Bowles said.
Bowles added that the biggest part of her story was that she was 11 years old when it started.
“There’s no age to become an activist or care about the environment. If you care now, whether you’re 11 years old or 80 years old, now is the time to say something and make a difference,” Bowles said.
Sabourin, co-author of the book alongside her husband, Globensky, who was the book’s primary author, said Globensky put a lot of hard work into the book for the last five years and it was an arduous journey for him.
“The book is about champions of human rights across Canada — the sung and unsung heroes. We know a lot of people (who) are well known, have been celebrated, and there are a lot of uncelebrated people in the book,” Sabourin said.
Of these champions, three were local to Thunder Bay.
Xavier Michon, one of the three, was a key figure in the Friendship Centre Movement and in its growth into a provincial and national body to address the issues of support needed for Indigenous peoples transitioning from reserves to urban centres.
Sabourin said Michon also managed to change many government policies to make financial supports available to Indigenous organizations, so they can offer those kinds of supports in Thunder Bay.
Josephine Mandamin, an Anishinabek Elder also known as “Grandmother Water Walker,” was another one of the three.
She said Mandamin dedicated her life to protecting the water and the environment.
“She put a lot of energy and time walking around the Great Lakes to send the message out about the delicate and spiritual sacred nature of our waters,” Sabourin said.
Taking away from the book, Sabourin said they hope people can see that they need to protect the rights that all these people have worked so hard for, fought for and gave up a lot of their lives to put in place, as well as the need to keep this going.
“We want to create the awareness of our history, the foundation that was built, and to move forward with young people,” Sabourin said.
“And that’s why we featured some young people in the book to show that there is hope and these young people are very just amazing young people. They have a lot more courage and guts, I would say, than our current leadership in terms of making changes.”
As such, she said she hoped the book would be promoted within school systems, universities and as part of their curriculum, to sort of educate about human rights and the people behind them.
