concerned citisens in grade 6!!!!!

On Thursday April 26, the students of Poplar Road elementary school's 6Th grade class participated in Bill 165 hearing these are a few of the comments they had when they were asked a series of question
why did you get involved in 165? Do you have any comments about the Bill?

"I got involved because I would like it to go though because in my opinion children have a right to be heard and for their voice to be addressed to the pubic."

"i thought that it would be a great experience for the class i think it should go through Ontario."
"i got involved by knowing that children do not know about there rights."

"i want to get involved with Bill 165 because I think all children should have rights. i think all kids should have a voice."

"I wanted to get involved with Bill 165 because kids weren't getting a say on their laws."
"I think Bill is a good idea because it will help a lot of kids. i wanted to get involved because I love this kind of stuff."

"i think that we were interested in Bill 165, because our classmate is in it and that is very interesting."
"we got involved when we started our little speech. my comment is that i think that the advocacy should become independent."

"i wanted to get involve with Bill 165 because it's about us. i thought if it was the the kids the kids should have a say . i think they should of asked more kids about it."

"at first i was not sure about speaking in front of the chair, even though i only said one sentence, but now i have heard what everybody here has to say i really want to get involved, and maybe help with the newsletter, because it's true some people don't take children seriously, and i think that's wrong! i want to help other kids have a voice like our class did today."

"I wanted to get involved with Bill 165 because i care about all children I also believe that all children's voices should be heard. The Bill165 is very important and that being independent can help them."

"i wanted my voice to be heard along with the rest of my classmates, kids should have a say when making voice for them."

"i got involved with bill 165n because i wanted to help less fortunate youth."

" i want to get involve people i love, i love talking to people and being with people and making people laugh and if some people are having problems (kids) them some one needs to help them and if the government doesn't want to help them and the advocacy office does then they should be allowed to."

"I wanted to get involved because i wanted other kids to know that they have rights and because I wanted my voice to be heard!"

i wanted to get involved with it because i can talk about why kids need rights and they have voices."

"i wanted to get involved with bill 165 because we heard that children were being treated badly and that children's voices were not heard...it's so kind that you guys are trying to help kids and its very thoughtful."

"i wanted to get involved with Bill 165 because it's about kids so i think i should have a say in the matter. i think the Bill should be passed because our voices should be recognized."

"because we are kids and we have voices too, and we want them to be as well."

"i wanted to know how it would be and it was a great experience."

" I want others to know i care about this matter."

" its important"

Arrell Youth Centre

I met with youth from Arrell Youth Centre the 23rd of April to talk about Bill 165 and this is what they had to say:

Ø “people say kids don’t know, but there is young offenders who do terrible things so you assume we all do bad things, but, there are a majority of us kids who are not bad…”
Youth Justice female in Secure Custody

Ø “we all deserve our rights”
Youth Justice female in Secure Detention

Ø “it’s nice to have someone there on your side to help you out, only to focus on you…”
Youth Justice Male in Secure Detention


Ø “obviously we need it [access to an advocate], why shouldn’t we have it?
Adults have it; they have someone to complain to. We could be being abused and they could do what they want to us and we can’t say anything. It feels like you [the government] don’t care about us. It feels like you are trying to make life harder on us.”
Youth Justice Male in Secure Detention

Ø “they [advocates] are not the only voice we got, but they are a voice. We [other youth in the facility] talked about this last night and you know the thing that disturbed us the most? We are troubled that you [government] didn’t come to us first and ask us what we needed.”
Youth Justice Male in Secure Detention