Category Children & Youth

News and hard-hitting, insightful, thoughtful, evidence-based, provocative, and progressive analysis of issues affecting children and youth in Canada and around the world.

Amanda Gorman: Award-winning 22-year-old African American poet and activist stole the Biden-Harris inauguration show with the reading of her soul-stirring poem “The Hill We Climb”

Amanda Gorman, an award-winning African American poet and activist, became the youngest presidential inauguration poet in U.S. history when she delivered her soul-stirring poem "The Hill We Climb," at the historical inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala D. Harris in Washington D.C. on Jan. 20, 2021.

Obert Madondo
February 28, 2021

Google Ad Portal Equated “Black Girls” with Porn

Research by The Markup found that searching Google’s ad buying portal for “Black girls,” “Latina girls,” and “Asian Girls” led to pornographic content, and searching for “White girls” returned no suggestions, indicating "a racial bias that equated people of color with objectified sexualization while exempting White people from any associations whatsoever."

The Canadian Progressive
January 31, 2021

Put Muslim characters who don’t need to be ‘saved’ on school reading lists

Children’s stories either written by Muslim writers or featuring Muslim main characters are typically nonexistent or problematic in their representations of Muslim experiences, writes Heba Elsherief, a PhD Candidate, Language and Literacies Education, at the University of Toronto.

The Canadian Progressive
July 26, 2017

The Mental and Physical Trauma of “Dreamers” Living With Deportation Threats

Since Trump's election, the future of Daniela Vargas and more than 750,000 recipients of former president Obama's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program has been uncertain. Most of them now endure mental and physical trauma as a result of lingering deportation threats.

The Canadian Progressive
March 4, 2017

Canada racially discriminates against First Nations children, tribunal rules

In a landmark decision issued Tuesday, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal ruled that Canada racially discriminates against First Nations children. "This is a great day for First Nations children and all Canadians who believe in justice and fairness," says Cindy Blackstock, the executive director of First Nations Child and Family Caring Society.

Obert Madondo
January 27, 2016

Climate change will harm the world’s poorest children “first, hardest, and longest”

In a new report titled Unless We Act Now, UNICEF says "climate change will harm the poorest and most vulnerable children first, hardest, and longest.” The time to act is now!

The Canadian Progressive
December 10, 2015

Lauren Bialystok: Empty Schools Campaign denies children essential education

Opponents of Ontario's sex education curriculum are denying children essential education, argues Lauren Bialystok, an Assistant Professor of Ethics and Education at the University of Toronto's Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.

Lauren Bialystok
October 8, 2015

Theland’s 134km walk for children of missing and murdered indigenous women

Theland Kicknosway, an 11 year old Pottawatami Cree boy, walked-and-ran 134 km from Ottawa to Kitigan Zibi, Quebec, to "bring attention to the children of missing and murdered Indigenous women."

Obert Madondo
April 7, 2015