{"id":6019,"date":"2014-03-26T14:47:54","date_gmt":"2014-03-26T18:47:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=6019"},"modified":"2014-04-02T15:52:47","modified_gmt":"2014-04-02T19:52:47","slug":"brocks-banter-roll-out-the-red-carpet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/brocks-banter-roll-out-the-red-carpet\/","title":{"rendered":"BROCK’S BANTER: Roll out the red carpet"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nearly two years ago, as Aurora Council debated the merits of going forward with a Youth Centre, or a Community Space for Youth, at the Aurora Family Leisure Complex, Councillor John Gallo opined, \u201cThere is a gap in terms of how we\u2019re dealing with our youth today. Maybe we need some other people to advise us on how to fill that gap.\u201d
\nThis was in mid-April 2012.
\nAt the time, I questioned why this Council hadn\u2019t taken a golden opportunity at the time to renew an initiative brought forward by Al Wilson in the last months of the previous Council term for Youth Councillors to have that ready voice of younger Aurorans right at the table.
\nIt would have provided Council the chance to hear what this demographic wanted in a Youth Centre while giving potential leaders of tomorrow a chance to shine and make contributions to public discourse.
\nIf some Councillors were looking for \u201csome other people\u201d to advise them on how to fill that gap, they should have been overjoyed when several Aurora students from a wide cross-section of area high schools came forward to say they wanted to take on the challenge.
\nWhile the majority of Councillors saw this as the golden opportunity it was, some were a bit less than enthusiastic.
\nAnd, if you get down to it, one even seemed dismayed by the entire idea.
\nAs the debate swirled in the third hour at last week\u2019s Council meeting, I became dismayed by some of the arguments Councillor Paul Pirri made against this idea.
\n\u201cI have always been opposed to the concept of a Youth Council or a Youth Committee for the same reason I would be opposed to a strictly seniors committee, or a committee for women,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel it marginalizes individuals and ultimately if the individuals in the community have opinions, they should be brought forward as individuals rather than just youth. Youth can contribute just as well as other individuals around the table.\u201d
\nWhile there was more than a kernel of truth in Councillor Pirri\u2019s argument, it is an argument which simply does not hold water in practice.
\nAny committee, by its very nature, marginalizes some individuals, or, at the very least caters to a specific segment of the population which excludes another.
\nAurora\u2019s Accessibility Advisory Committee, a statutory committee required by the Province, is populated, in addition to their Council representative, by individuals who experience \u2013 or have family members who experience \u2013 accessibility challenges in their day to day lives.
\nAurora\u2019s Trails and Active Transportation Committee is largely comprised of the same handful of individuals in this community who have become synonymous with trail advocacy and other environmental issues.
\nIt would also be unlikely for members of the Heritage Advisory Committee not to have a certain appreciation for where Aurora has been and, on that front, where it is going.
\nThese groups do not marginalize anyone from taking part, but the reality is to make the effort to apply for Committee membership, you are more than likely to have a vested interest in the subject matter.
\nAs was pointed out in last week\u2019s debate by Councillor Michael Thompson, there is nothing, in theory, stopping youth from applying to become members of any of Aurora\u2019s advisory committees. They do not have to be the age of majority.
\nOne supposes they don\u2019t have to have any particular background in the field they want to be discussing, but it is hard to imagine that such qualifications to not play a part in the closed door Council meetings which ultimately decide which applicants will be accepted to the committee.
\nBut, let\u2019s put ourselves back into the shoes of these high school students and think, which one of us at that age would have decided to take the plunge, apply, and sit at the table as the lone voice representing our demographic?
\nIn many cases, one would be sitting amongst experts who have years of experience in their field.
\nAs friendly and accommodating as historians \u2013 and Heritage Advisory Committee members \u2013 John McIntyre and Jacqueline Stuart are, and as friendly and accommodating as environmentalist Judy Gilchrist is on her respective committee, it could be a daunting and intimidating prospect for any high school student to really feel comfortable speaking up and saying what is on their mind.
\nWhile Councillor Pirri argues that having a Youth Committee would marginalize in the same way as a Seniors\u2019 Committee or a Women\u2019s Committee would, and perhaps he is right as far as gender-specific committees go, but doesn\u2019t Aurora already have a de-facto Seniors\u2019 Committee in the form of the Aurora Seniors\u2019 Association?
\nSure, it is not a committee specifically designated by the Town of Aurora to address seniors\u2019 issues in Aurora, but that hasn\u2019t stopped them from becoming an organized voice in this community to advocate on behalf of, and for, seniors issues.
\nTheir collective voices have gone a long way in bettering their lot, including securing new bocce courts at the Seniors\u2019 Centre, the adaptation of a municipally-owned tennis court to accommodate the flourishing new sport of pickleball, and commandeered elbow room in the Community Space for Youth to accommodate bursting-at-the-seems senior programming when youth are ostensibly in school.
\nWhy shouldn\u2019t young Aurorans be afforded with the same voice within this Town?
\nMany decisions in Aurora, pending or otherwise, could greatly benefit from having the voice of the youth behind it. While the Youth Centre\/Community Space for Youth ship has sailed, this voice could be an influential one in steering it for the future. They would also be invaluable for their input into documents such as the Aurora Cultural Master Plan and Community Improvement plan. After all, who would be better positioned to tell lawmakers what would entice them and their peers to take part in all Aurora has to offer and, when ready to join the workforce, seek out opportunities close to home.
\nAnd who better to task with going into the schools, talking to physically challenged students, parents, and others on whether Aurora will get good bang from their buck transforming Queen\u2019s Diamond Jubilee Park into an accessibility playground?
\nPerhaps the most enticing prospect of all is this group of students want to bring their own issues, and their own concerns, to the table, not just provide input on what\u2019s currently on the backburner at Town Hall. For a group which often ponders the best way to engage and reach out to all segments of the community, there should be no hesitation whatsoever in Council welcoming them to the table.
\nIn fact, they should bring out their Dustbusters and roll out the red carpet. <\/p>\n

CORRECTION<\/strong>
\nAs a matter of clarification, it has been brought to The Auroran\u2019s attention that in last week\u2019s article on expenses by Council and Committee members, the $140 attributed to Heritage Advisory Committee member Bob McRoberts was not a reimbursement for the purchase of six copies of his book, Postcards of Olde Aurora for the Aurora Public Library, and an honorarium for a presentation he made on the same subject. In addition, the $130.63 the article attributed as a reimbursement to Council candidate and Environmental Advisory Committee (EAC) member Svetla Topouzova, was actually a reimbursement to former EAC member Charles Levine. We apologise for the error. <\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir Nearly two years ago, as Aurora Council debated the merits of going forward with a Youth Centre, or a Community Space for Youth, at the Aurora Family Leisure Complex, Councillor John Gallo opined, \u201cThere is a gap in terms of how we\u2019re dealing with our youth today. Maybe we need some other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-1z5","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-14 09:05:58","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6019\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}