page 8 December 6, 1985

___ The Other Pres Other Press

 

by Peter Kuitenbrouwer
National Bureau Chief
Canadian University Press

Canadian federal government policy
for International Year of Youth was
balloons, cake-cutting, posters, con-
tests and conference after conference.
Youth of absolutely every denominat-
ion went off to endless conferences to
talk about themselves. The federal
government blew $24 million in tax-
payers’ money and accomplished ab-
solutely nothing of lasting value.

Youth are people between age 15
and 24. Even though the UN decided
in 1979 that this would be Youth Year,
the term youth has only been around
since the last recession when youth
unemployment in Canada climbed to
18 per cent. After that the term
‘‘youth’’ became popular with every-
one from politicians to free-lance
magazine writers. And in its last year,
the Trudeau government gave the
concept credibility as a public relat-
ions tool when he appointed the first
Minister of Youth. This did nothing
for youths; but the recession ended
~ and youths went back to fast food
restaurant jobs.

The rest. of the world youth are

worse off. The UN’s ‘‘IYY Facts’’
says the world youth population in the
year 2000 will be 60 per cent higher
than in 1975. The youth population of
the west will grow only five per cent,
while the youth population of Africa,
~ Asia and Latin America will almost
‘double i in the next quarter century.
‘The increase of the youth populat-
ion is likely to have adverse effects on
economic growth and social progress,
aggravating most of the problems
young people are facing today such as
unemployment, lack of education and
training opportunities, the irrelevance
of education to their future productive
participation in the development of
their society, poor health services,

malnutrition, etc,’’ the UN document

‘Says.

Some countries, like the Nether-
lands, decided to use Youth Year to
point out that youth are in a bad way
world-wide and that things aren't
getting better. In a Nov., 1984 letter
to the lower house of the Dutch
parliament explaining IYY policy,
Holland’s minister for welfare, health,

and cultural affairs writes ‘“The work-

 

“there are many youth
who do not have jobs.”

 

ing party has selected the following
priorities for attention during the Year
in the Netherlands, with which the
government is in complete accord:
youth unemployment, young people
from cultural and ethnic minorities,
the state of being a minor, youth
culture, peace and development.’’ A
Dutch brochure shows all different
youth: black, white, punks, drug
addicts, school-kids, five year olds
clowning around.

In the United Kingdom, actress
Julie Walters and pop star Paul
Weller of the Style Council co-chaired

The Youth Mi

the IYY committee. Activities includ-
ed establishing unemployment action
committees and youth centres as well
as a national anti-drug abuse cam-
paign.

In the United States quite a bit less
went on. Although the private or-
ganisers squeezed a speech out of
President Ronald Reagan, activities
were simply an IYY photo contest, a
commemorative stamp, monthly

 

Pe ®

‘ newsletters and official proclamations

from different levels of government.

The international themes of the
year, ‘‘Participation, development
and peace,’’ are vague enough that
Conservative minister of State for
Youth Andree Champagne could
sprinkle an abundance of small
grants, brochures and goodwill across
the country will saying nothing at all
about any of youth’s problems, or
coming up with any remedies.

It all might have something to do
with Champagne’s past, her upbring-
ing and experiences.

For Quebecois, Champagne is pro-
bably the most instantly recognizable
member of Mulroney’s cabinet. They
know her as Donalda, the ‘‘tender,
submissive, ill-married but hopelessly
faithful heroine of Les belles histoires
des pays en bas, an extremely popular
daytime drama of the late 1950 and
early 1960’s,’’ according to Benoit
Aubin, a writer for Quebec’s maga-
zine L‘Actualite. In the show,
Champagne’s Donalda had a secret
crush on a young, poor settler, but
kept her place and stuck by her
destiny married to the rich, cruel
power broker Seraphin.

“How tragic a story, what implac-
able fatality. How claustrophobic, how
Catholic, how Quebecois,’’ Aubin
writes.

And this is what youth get in
Champagne’s Ottawa. They sparkle,
they’re pretty, they get some sym-
pathy, but ultimately their hopes,
their aspirations, their needs are
ignored, and they resign themselves
to their fate.

 

 

 

As an actress turned politician,
Champagne understands symbols.
And certain symbols she’s chosen for
youth have dominated her policy. A
year ago, before Youth Year started,
she told the Toronto Star ‘’But if 10 or
15 per cent of them are in trouble,
that means we have 85 or 90 per cent
where it’s going well, people without
jobs, maybe, who still manage to
function, who go back to school.
What's that old song’’ - and here she
breaks into English - ‘’Accentuate the
positive.’’

Luc Martin, 26, a New Democrat
co-ordinating youth activity at the
Canadian Labour Congress, noticed
that Champagne’s statistic of how
many youth were in trouble steadily
declined as International Year of
Youth went on.

“In the first interview (Champagne
gave to reporters) 15-20 per cent of
youth were disaffected, in the second
15 per cent, in the third 10-15per
cent. By the fourth interview only 10
per cent of youth were having pro-
blems,’’ Martin said.

Martin, one of 24 youth Champagne
appointed to the IYY consultative
Committee that will have met a dozen

times by year-end, said he didn’t’

mind that Champagne’s Youth Year
emphasises successful young Canad-
ians, including Sylvie Bernier, Alex
Baumann, Steve Fonyo, Wayne
Gretzky. ‘| was also tired of hearing

about. unemployed, drugged youth,”

he said.

“We talked hot the cae
kids,’ Martin said. ‘’1 don’t question
(Champagne’s) sincerity. But there
are many youth who don’t have jobs.
It’s not in ignoring these youth that
they will go away.’

 

“It is youth who have to
take the situation
into their own hands”

 

The ministry received $24 million to
accentuate the positive. Of that, $12
million went directly to other federal
departments: $1.65 million to com-

munications, $1.05 million to external
affairs, $450,000 of that to commem-
orate the U.N.’s 40th anniversary,
$600,000 to Justice, $700,000 to
Indian Affairs, and $635,000 to Trans-
port Canada. Of the remaining $12
million, just over $4 million went to
pay salaries for 24 employees, and
print and distribute brochures and
posters. The secretary of state also
put out a youth year magazine, and a
national listing of all youth groups,
each distributed in 7,000 copies. They
spent $500,000 on five regional for-
ums in different parts of Canada.

The other $7.757 million went,
according to a list updated to Nov. 22,
in 926 grants across the country.
Apart from huge inequalities: -
though B.C. and Alberta have almost
equal populations, B.C. got almost
twice as much IYY money as Alberta,
and Quebec and Ontario got almost
the same amount of money, though
Ontario has three million people - the

. “how:to organize things yourself

   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
    
   
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
  
  
  
  
   
   
  
 
    
 
   
  
 
 
   
  
 
  

list shows that money went to
main types of projects: cultural aq
ties and conferences.

The second-largest grant, $132
went to IMAJ ‘85, a Quebec g
which according to Ann Dad
director of the lYY Secretariat, d
buted the youth magazine
d‘Ordre in schools, organised a
bec week of youth, and gat
people from a series of meeting
put together a couple of performa
called ‘“Super-Booms.’’ M
streamed out for youth orches
youth theatre productions,
newspapers. To a lesser ex
money went to women’s gra
aboriginal groups, and those wo
with disaffected Canadians: the
vices for Marginal Youth: Award
Committee in Halifax got a
$3,569.

None of these are lasting progr
“While we have this one-year hd
moon we (should have) put toget!
permanent program for youth. Dd
need a minister to put on perf
ances?’’-asked Martin.

He suggested more long-term
projects could have’ included
counselling for marginal youth, t
either unemployed, addicted to d
or alcohol. In the Netherland
project for people from min
groups included distribution of i
mation on career guidance, oppo!
ities in training, legal position,

Champagne’s indifference to
who are not white, middle-class
successful has been’ obvious.
consulting committee had no blac
handicapped youth, and the g
majority are middle-class kids. T¢
the 24 are card-carrying young
gressive Conservatives. A big cd
poster for a writing contest the
secretariat organized depicts ©
youth: beautiful, Ww
well-groomed. | Champagne
points for her own staff, w
average age, 27, is much lower
that of other federal ministers -
most of her staff are white fra
phones.

 

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