By Owen Charters, President & CEO, BGC Canada

January 16, 2024

In BGC Clubs, we strive to listen to youth voices. We have strategic directions to amplify youth voices, assist them in finding their voice, and to help them to become youth advocates to get their messages out to policymakers and decision-makers.

For many people, the start of a new year is an opportunity to reflect, start fresh, and focus on new habits, goals, or projects. For BGC Canada, the new year is a good time to remind ourselves of the importance of our work—positively impacting young people’s lives and creating safe spaces for them to develop the skills they need to succeed.

In BGC Clubs, we strive to listen to youth voices. We have strategic directions to amplify youth voice, assist them find their voice, and get their messages out to policymakers and decision-makers. Under our vision for Strong Voice, we will “reflect and amplify youth voices and share youth perspectives” and “be a timely voice with both governments and media on emerging issues that affect children and youth.”

BGC Canada’s National Youth Council

BGC Canada’s National Youth Council (NYC) allows a voice of youth in our governance—a way to bridge the gap between Club youth and BGC Canada. We need to hear what’s important, their concerns, and their vision for us to guide our organization and our movement to meet the needs and dreams of our members.

Throughout their term as an NYC member, these young leaders will set professional development goals, offer insight to the BGC Canada national team through committees, connect with the Board of Directors to discuss issues facing youth, and plan and deliver our biennial National Youth Forum—where youth in Clubs come together for workshops, activities, and excursions.

Ultimately, our NYC members serve as role models for future members and youth in Clubs in their provinces and across Canada. Accomplishments from past NYC years include multiple statements (State of the Youth Report, anti-racism, anti-trans legislation, and mental health), visits to Parliament Hill, conferences and workshops nationwide, and more.

Our National Youth Council is one of many and is not the only youth voice on the stage. There is a history of powerful and vital youth voices; in fact, thousands of voices call powerfully for change around the globe, and so many here in Canada.

BGC Canada’s 2024 National Youth Council

In December 2023, 12 youth from across the country were elected to sit on our 2024-2025 National Youth Council. They met at our national office in Toronto to discuss their roles and responsibilities as council members. They set goals, and started planning advocacy projects for young people in Clubs.

How can we really listen to youth voices?

Youth voices are powerful and often are singularly focused. The response from older decision-makers is often one of nodding admission of the issue but then pivoting to get back to business—business, meaning finding compromises that erode and undermine the core principles of what these youth voices bring to the table. Because, as we all know, the older you get, the more you know you have to be pragmatic and balance the demands of ‘real life’ with the ideals of urgent action.

Is this okay? Is this the way it should be? Governing—whether at the UN, or the federal level, or at the national board table, or in the board meetings of member Clubs—is about compromise. But shouldn’t it also be driven by the unwavering focus of these youthful ideals?

If we really, truly want change, don’t we have to be as equally uncompromising?

We borrow this land from our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren; we need to look at least seven generations ahead. If that pearl of Indigenous wisdom is true, then decisions need to be made that include the long view, the perspectives of the young people who see the world and the society they will inherit, and are frankly concerned that short-term interests are prioritized much too often.

We need to overcome the bias for decision-makers to make decisions for those who look, act, and are like themselves, including those of the same generation. We need to lift the voices of the youth we serve, bring them to the table, and have their calls ring out for accountability. There are many, many more. They exist in our Clubs. And where they are outside our Clubs, we need to engage with them.

We need to listen to them. And we need to give them the biggest megaphones we can find. We must broker the forums where their voices can be heard by those in power. We need to create a future for seven generations and beyond.

By Owen Charters, President & CEO, BGC Canada

July 11, 2023

In Canada, we value our differences and celebrate all of our unique aspects. And we are different, from coast to coast to coast. But a defining uniqueness is our bilingualism.

At BGC Canada, we recognize that honouring and promoting bilingualism is essential for ensuring equitable access to opportunities. BGC is, in fact, a bilingual organization. But what does this really mean? We often take the fact that we operate in two languages for granted. It’s not easy and it takes a lot of work to provide bilingual services.

I’ve seen companies that have made the decision to create an English ad, then translate it, dub it, and run it in French. They wonder why they don’t get much traction in Quebec. Well, as a consumer, when you’re treated like an afterthought, you tend to return the favour.

Simple, pure translation of one language to the other isn’t high-functioning bilingualism. It’s basic and can even be insulting if done improperly.

Let’s start at the bottom of the French-English capacity, and work our way up:

1. Google Translate: A great service—but it’s a machine and it makes errors. Lots of them. It can’t understand nuance, context, or culture. But it’s useful to help you understand something you’re attempting to read in another language.
2. Professional translation: It’s a somewhat better model of translation than machine services. However, professionals don’t always know the lingo, the context, or the culture of your organization or what you’re trying to say. If you’re describing something specific, like a medical issue or a specific, unique program, the translator may have little to no background in that area and choose words that are adequate but perhaps not accurate. Word to the wise—if you have something translated, get a native speaker of the language who is also an expert in the field or topic to proofread.
3. Co-creation: Working with someone who has an understanding of the topic and is native to the language, you work together to create two parallel communications with the same outcome. Some of the best ad campaigns are created twice—a marketing brief is created that describes what you’re trying to communicate, and then two separate creative teams—one French, one English—create separate but similar ads.
4. Bi-culturalism: This is beyond bilingualism and is the ultimate end-goal. Marlene Deboisbriand, our VP of Strategy & Operations, talks about how the epitome of working in two languages isn’t actually being fluently bilingual; it’s being bi-cultural. French-Canadian culture is distinct, and not just in the constitution. French-Canadian art, music, television, and literature is exported around the world. And most Anglo-Canadians don’t know the famous global celebrities that come out of this unique culture. Working in French means understanding and integrating the cultural references, idioms, and nuances, not just the language.

I once saw a marketing campaign that was developed for a Canadian company by their ad agency. In French, it was terrible. All of their French-Canadian constituents complained about it. The company was flummoxed—their ad agency had a native French speaker develop the French campaign. It turned out the native speaker was French—but from France. They had no understanding of Quebec or French-Canadian culture, so their word choices were inappropriate for a Canadian context.

At BGC Canada, we actually have a long way to go to be a fully bilingual organization. We offer services, programs, and materials in French. But we are not a fluently bilingual organization, and we’re definitely not bi-cultural. But we are working on it and have hired new staff in recent months to help get us there. But it takes time and effort (and money).

Working in two languages is not a one-way street. It’s about the back and forth and living in two languages, two cultures, simultaneously. And that is definitely, distinctly, Canadian.

Read more:

• Why inclusive language is important
• BGC Canada’s commitment to Indigenous Engagement and Reconciliation
• National Youth Council Statement on Anti-Trans Legislation

July 22, 2023

By Valentina Shamoun and Sydney John-Baptise, both Torontonians and members of BGC Canada’s National Youth Council

Dear Future Mayor – Toronto is a vibrant, multicultural city. The sheer number of traditions and opportunities – from jobs to culture to entertainment – draw people from around the world to live, study and work here. But without young people, this vibrancy is at risk.

Young people are finding it harder and harder to live here. We kept hearing that coming out of the pandemic, the city would come roaring back to life – prosperity, fun and relief that the worst was behind us and we could work toward fixing our city’s problems. It doesn’t feel that way living in Toronto these days. We are finding it hard to feel optimistic about our future here.

Dear Mayor, how are you going to help revive our city?

Young people can barely live here anymore. Did you know that the average age of Torontonians is now over 40? The average rent is over $2,500/month which is impossible for most young people to afford, pushing us further and further out to the edges of the city or out of the GTA altogether. We constantly hear that ‘young people don’t want to work’, especially in entry-level jobs, retail, and hospitality. That’s not it – we just can’t afford to live in Toronto and make those wages. Why would we commute into the city to make $16 an hour? Many of us are trying to get by on insufficient OSAP funds, piecing together part-time work, orare already drowning in student debt. It can take us an hour and a half to get from Scarborough to downtown in rush hour, each way. That’s 15 hours a week we could be working or studying instead. It just doesn’t make sense. We are worried about what downtown Toronto will look like in 5 or 10 years. Where will youth fit in?

What are you going to do immediately about violence on the TTC? Because most of us don’t feel safe. Ridership is down since pre-pandemic levels, but violence is up. Teens, especially young women, are taking the streetcar to the GO train in some areas because it’s not safe to be underground after dark with no cell service. It’s an expensive and inconvenient option that we resent. Dear Mayor, why does a world-class city not have cell service on subway trains in 2023? Youth don’t care about battles with big telecom. We cannot wait two years for this to happen – every day without it makes stepping underground feel like a roll of the dice.

How do you plan to advocate for marginalized youth and provide more mental health resources? More than 300 students have been involved in violent incidents so far this year. There is clearly a crisis in our schools. Students who are struggling, especially those with special needs, have been chronically under-served. Will you fight for equitable education and everyone’s right to feel safe in the classroom?

Dear Mayor, when was the last time you worked in the community? Spoke to someone who is unhoused unless you were in front a camera? Most youth want a mayor who has spent years working in the community because it’s the only way to truly understand the crisis going on now. The kind of mayor who cares less about showing up at the Pride Parade for a photo op and more about keeping trans kids safe and advocating for the health of 2S & LGBTQIA+ youth on a daily basis.

Dear Future Mayor, please don’t think we’ve lost hope. Young people need things to change and need you to show us you can get things done. Let us be a part of the strength of this great city we love so much.

Read more:

• National Youth Council Statement on Anti-Trans Legislation
• National Youth Council Statement on Mental Health