Today, as I sit down to write this, is September 21, World Day of Peace. My six-year-old and I took a bouquet of flowers to a local war memorial and laid it beneath a sign that read: “In honor of those who died in war and conflict.”
It seemed fitting. A little girl who has never known war nonetheless struggling to understand its absence in her life…and understand her mother’s gratitude for that.
Other mothers, of course, aren’t so lucky. They scrape together a life in the midst of conflict, or watch as their sons and daughters enlist. In worst case scenarios, they learn of their children’s disappearance, knowing without a doubt that their children have been seized to be trained as soldiers.
Canada recently altered its foreign policy to change the term “child soldier” to “children in armed conflict”. According to news reports, Harper’s Conservative government has been quietly altering many foreign policy terms – some that were hard-won – including removing the word “humanitarian” from references to “international humanitarian law”.
It’s worrying to me that Canada is losing its formerly firm grip on social justice issues. While we haven’t always done the right thing (First Nations issues remain this country’s great shame), I believe social justice has routinely been fought for.
On this World Day of Peace, I remain proud of what our soldiers are doing around the world, particularly in Afghanistan, but dream of a day when such measures are unnecessary.
However, my pride doesn’t extend to the government officials who, with the swipe of their pens, have made mockery of our foreign policy and, indeed, democracy as a whole.