|
|
|
Five aboriginal young people recognized by lieutenant-governor in Legal Eagle Award ceremonies |
|
|
Written by PAUL STRICKLAND
Citizen staff
|
|
Thursday, 13 November 2008 |
Five city and Central and Northern Interior aboriginal young people were honoured for their extraordinary work for betterment of their communities with the 2008 Legal Eagle Award they received Thursday from B.C. Lt.-Gov. Steven L. Point during ceremonies in the Prince George courthouse.
The award is sponsored by the Law Courts Education Society of B.C. and the Northern Native Public Legal Education Program. "This award recognizes aboriginal youth showing outstanding work in legal and social justice issues," the lieutenant-governor said.
About 110 people attended the ceremonies in Courtroom 104.
The recipients of the award Thursday were Tiare Jung, 17, of Duchess Park secondary school; Kayla Cardinal, 19, of Prince George, a recent high school graduate; Willie Cooper, 22, of Williams Lake; Andrew Tom, 23, of Moricetown; and Philippe Lacerte, 26, of the Lake Babine First Nation.
--Among other things Jung co-founded the Charity Crew at Duchess Park and has organized such events as the 30-Hour Famine and Pocket Change for Global Change, said Sandy Staats, Aboriginal Programs Steering Committee Representative for the Law Courts Education Society.
In her remarks on accepting the award, Jung said she helped organize an initiative called Trick or Eats to collect food for the poor instead of candy on Halloween night. She also described promoting a drive to raise funds for development in Uganda.
--Cardinal was involved in the Street Spirits theatre program three years ago and in 2006 took part in creating Shadow of a Scream, a hard-hitting play about sexual abuse that Street Spirits has toured, Staats said.
Cardinal could not attend in person to receive the award because she was touring in Saskatchewan with Headlines Theatre Company. Amanda Wood of Prince George read her acceptance speech at the awards event. Cardinal credited her family and community for encouraging her achievements. She cautioned against a tendency among some aboriginal and other groups to live separately away from mainstream society. "This has been part of the problem," she said in the remarks that were read out at the event.
---Cooper, a member of the Tsilhqot'in Nation, has shown outstanding leadership and heart in his role as a public speaker, Staats said. At 14 his first official engagement was at a National Crime Prevention Conference with 500 delegates. He attends his nation's functions as a delegate whenever possible.
Cooper thanked his family for their support. "Thank you for acknowledging me for what I did," he said.
He said it is not usual for him to take credit for individual achievement. "I come from a community where it's all for one and one for all," he said.
"I dedicate my life to you."
--Tom is the youngest elected council member of the Moricetown band. He sits on various committees to ensure youth voices are listened to, Staats said. "Since his employment with the Wet'suwet'en Unlocking Aboriginal Justice program, his leadership has allowed him to connect with youth, and it has proven to be successful with lesser crime rates in Moricetwon since his involvement," she said.
"I decided I would do something about it," Tom said in his acceptance speech. "I would not just go to meetings, but actually go out in the field and do something about it."
--Lacerte, a member of the Caribou Clan, has taken some risk in engaging youth to challenge drug traffickers in the Lake Babine area. "It has served notice to those who prey on our young people that he does not stand alone in this initiative," Staats said. "He stands side by side with youth when there is a tragedy and another life is lost within the community."
Lacerte works to build reconciliation between the mainstream community and the First Nation community, she added. "He has set up sports events where the two groups work together, which has brought about a change not seen in many years in the town of Burns Lake."
"I want to help make our communities better," Lacerte said in his acceptance remarks. "In this world, a winner has a program; the loser has an excuse.
"A winner says of a challenge, 'It's difficult but it may be possible,'" he said. "A loser says, 'It may be possible, but it's too difficult.'"
In the past, few aboriginal young people felt courthouses and the justice system were a friendly environment for them, Lt.-Gov. Point said in a speech after the awards presentations. "Aboriginals have felt they have not been part of this country," he said. "Rather, they have been apart from it."
Point referred to a Canadian movie he had seen recently with his wife, Passchendaele, portions of which are set in the front lines of the First World War in France in 1917. During a scene in the movie a Canadian battalion is being decimated by well directed enemy gunfire and shelling when reinforcements arrive, providing relief and encouragement and ensuring that the village of Passchendaele is eventually taken by the Allies.
The lieutenant-governor said that seeing young aboriginal people volunteering for crime-prevention initiatives and then rising by means of career achievement through the legal profession and the court system is encouraging to him. "I feel this way -- that relief is here," he said.
"You already have great determination, and have to be aware of what has been done," Lt.-Gov. Point said. "What a great feeling it is to be here with you.
"You're going to find that you will be taking a journey that will bring you to many places to meet many interesting people, as I have," he said. "You may hear people say, 'This is not possible to do.'
"But you know how the eagle flies high."
 |
|
Last Updated ( Thursday, 13 November 2008 )
|
|
|
Who's Online
We have 187 guests and 12 members online
|
Subscribe to this comment's feed
