It’s time to reflect on a year of optimism
Maybe 2017 wasn’t as bad as you think, write Craig and Marc Kielburger.
Last December, the words “dumpster fire” captured a prevailing sentiment for end-of-year reflection. We were hoping to put the extinguisher away in 2017.
In the face of civil wars, natural disasters and a Nazi rebrand bringing marches to the streets, pessimism comes easily. Optimism is difficult — the conscious choice to draw inspiration from positive moments, at home and around the world. We choose hope. For some Canadians, 2017 is the year that ended a threedecade wait. In 1989, Michelle Douglas was dismissed from the Canadian Forces, deemed “not advantageously employable due to homosexuality.” She sued for discrimination and won. Despite her victory that let the gay community serve openly in the military, Canada’s government never said it was sorry.
That changed in November, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologized for historic discrimination against LGBTQ2 Canadian service members. It wasn’t just personal vindication for Douglas, but an inspiration.
“I feel even more committed now to join with fellow Canadians to create positive change in our world on other issues like the environment,” she says.
In December, Australia’s Parliament voted to legalize samesex marriage, no doubt inspiring millions more.
At home in Canada, small but significant gestures show non-Indigenous Canadians are taking personal responsibility for reconciliation. In September, the Kahkewistahaw First Nation in Saskatchewan welcomed a public school’s football team from the town of Southey to their community school. Before the game, Southey’s coach surprised Kahkewistahaw coach Evan Taypotat with a traditional gift of tobacco — one of the four medicines sacred to First Nations.
Many of our country’s schools now start every day by acknowledging the Indigenous territory they stand on.
In the world of science, there were breakthroughs for cancer patients in Africa and babies born with opioid addiction.
In the world at large, António Guterres took office as Secretary-General of the United Nations in January. One of his first acts was to appoint women to three of the UN’s top jobs, including deputy secretary-general, setting a global example for gender parity in leadership. “It is this action, more than rhetoric, that moved us closer to gender equity,” says Kate White, president of the UN Association in Canada.
Amid the carnage of war, heroes arose. In March, Fadia Najib Thabet, a 30-year-old Yemeni woman, received the U.S. Secretary of State’s International Women of Courage Award for protecting the most vulnerable victims of Yemen’s civil war: youth. Risking her own life, Thabet rescued young boys abducted by militias, saving them from recruitment as child soldiers.
All year long, we were moved by the dedication of youth and their conviction for social justice.
Simryn and Jasmyn Singh, 15 and 11, teamed up with Got Bannock, an Indigenous community organization, to serve traditional Sikh and Indigenous food to Winnipeg’s homeless.
Looking back on 2017, you can call it a dumpster fire, or you can witness a thousand small flames igniting hope and inspiration. If you choose the latter, it becomes easier to light your own spark for change in the year to come.