Student ‘councillors’ take over City Hall
The subject was Hamilton’s opioid addiction problem and those huddled around the table in the main council chambers of City Hall had clearly done their homework.
But these weren’t Hamilton councillors kicking around strategies for potential solutions.
It was Sunday morning and these were high school students from Hamilton, Burlington and surrounding area taking part in a “model city hall” initiative, designed to open up the political process to young people.
Smartly dressed in blazers, suit jackets and ties, they discussed the merits of safe injection sites, education programs aimed at high-risk youths and the possibility of providing naloxone kits beyond paramedics and police officers.
But those ideas weren’t cutting it with Jack Ceroni, one of the “councillors” seated around the council table. Unlike many of his student peers, Ceroni had a far more conservative outlook on the issue.
Safe injection sites just enable the problem of drug addiction, said Ceroni, a 15-year-old Grade 10 student at Burlington’s Robert Bateman High School.
“The issue lies in fixing the inner city and creating jobs, therefore getting people off the streets,” Ceroni told his fellow “councillors.”
“When this happens, people will be less willing to turn to the needle to solve their problems.
“Let’s spend our tax money correctly and not use temporary solutions such as safe injection sites and legalization of drugs, but create permanent solutions that can actually solve the issue at hand.”
After the session was over, Ceroni said in an interview he’s always had an interest in politics.
“I have more of a conservative viewpoint when it comes to politics,” he said.
Can we expect to see him some day entering the political arena?
“Actually, I’d really like to go into physics and math,” Ceroni said.
The main goal of the “model city hall” is to make municipal politics more understandable and accessible for high school students.
“Municipal politics is often a level of government that’s overlooked both in school curriculum and extracurriculars,” said Ruby Hye of Hamilton, a 16-year-old Grade 11 student at Westdale Secondary School and one of the event co-chairs.
“So we wanted to draw attention to that through this conference because municipal politics is so pertinent to everyone’s lives, whether or not they recognize that,” added Hye.
The exercise also helps put students on a path to having their voices heard by politicians and decision makers, said Cassidy Bereskin, one of the organizers.
“The goal is to make politics more accessible but also to arm students with a tool kit of information, of resources — like strengthening public speaking and debating skills, and knowledge about the decisions being made at city hall,” said Bereskin, who just finished her first year in political science at McMaster University.
“We definitely hope that students will be more inclined to get into politics,” she added.
About 80 students participated in Sunday’s inaugural event.
“For our first-ever conference in the city, it’s phenomenal,” said Bereskin.
The students were divided into three groups and they rotated through committee sessions looking at public health, planning and general issues. One of the sessions, for example, looked at issues related to LRT.
They followed the same rules and procedures that would be in place for council and committee meetings.
“We wanted to focus on topics that are relevant to Hamilton but would still be able to engage students,” said Hye.
The daylong program was modelled on a similar effort started in Toronto in 2015 and the organizers expect it to become an annual event in Hamilton.
Hye said she’s been contacted by other municipalities across the province interested in starting their own “model city hall.”