VANCOUVER – Grace Chapman is looking forward to the start of a new school year and the chance to tell her classmates all about her summer spent rallying against the many sociopolitical issues facing the country.
“It started when I offered to help my mom with her protest sign for the Trans Mountain pipeline.” Grace reminisced “I got an A- on my Social Studies project and knew I had the markers, bristle board and artistic flare for the job.”
Grace admitted she didn’t know what to expect attending her first political rally but was happy her parents didn’t call the babysitter. She spent most of the rally on her father’s shoulders to get a better view of the crowd and snacked on the trail mix her mom packed.
“I can’t believe how many adults were shouting!” Grace said, “There were people making speeches and chants and lots of signs, but mine was the best.” Grace raised her hand when she had some questions about the government’s inadequate consultations with indigenous peoples and the catastrophic environmental impact the pipeline would have, but decided to wait for the drive home to ask her parents.
The last rally Grace attended was in Toronto while visiting family. “I was hoping to go to Wonderland or the CN tower but instead we had to go protest the roll back on Ontario’s sex-ed curriculum.” Grace explained “That one was fun cause I was with my cousins and everyone was saying they were going to fight for us, so we pretended I was the Queen of Consent and they were my army.”
Grace is hopeful that her classmates will want to hear about Canada’s current political climate but believes that Jessica Elliot’s trip to Disneyland will take priority, after which she plans to inform everyone of how poorly they pay their workers.
