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Article: Students lay Down the Law
Students lay down the law
Teens push healthy eating, job safety Proposals introduced in Legislature Apr.*7, 2006. 05:15*AM KERRY GILLESPIE QUEEN'S PARK BUREAU, ONTARIO Fifteen-year-old Nupur Dogra thinks it's time students across Ontario say no to three cafeteria favourites: sugar, salt and fat. Dogra, a student at Iroquois Ridge High School in Oakville, got a chance to do something about it yesterday. For the first time in Ontario, proposed legislation drafted by a student ‹ this one requiring schools to educate students about healthy food choices ‹ was introduced in the Legislature. Dogra was not alone. Vanessa Flemming, 15, knows students who've been scared and hurt at part-time jobs because they didn't know they had a right to refuse unsafe work. She and some classmates at Cardinal Carter Secondary School in Aurora hope to change that with their bill requiring employers to tell student workers about their basic labour rights. Students at Georgetown District Secondary School think their bill, requiring paper and aluminium recycling bins in every class, will make a difference. All three proposals were introduced by MPPs as private member's bills yesterday thanks to CBC television reporter Mike Wise, who started the Making the Grade project as a way to engage students in politics. It seems to have worked. "When they said `Cardinal Carter' in the Legislature, I couldn't breathe. When I heard my name read out, I honestly thought I was dreaming," Amanda Piron, 15, said. Piron, and four other members of the "bill-making team," were bouncing with excitement after a day of meeting the premier and watching their student labour rights idea, which could become law, introduced in the Legislature. "Being in the same picture with the premier was just such an honour," said Lauren Babic, 15. "It feels like meeting a celebrity, kind of," Flemming said. On a more serious note, she added, "I have a much more positive outlook on politicians as a whole because they've been so nice and so helpful." The praise went both ways. "The students aren't just making the grade; they're making history. This is the first time ever in Ontario that students have drafted legislation that we will debate and hopefully pass into law in this House," said NDP MPP Andrea Horwath (Hamilton East), who introduced the student labour rights bill. Liberal Kathleen Wynne (Don Valley West) introduced the recycling bill and Progressive Conservative MPP Frank Klees (Oak Ridges) introduced the healthy food choices bill. What Dogra really wanted was a bill to ban junk food and vending machines in schools but was told that wouldn't fly. She adapted and is hoping that more informed kids will choose healthier foods in their cafeterias and the number of vending machines will decline. Her school, Iroquois Ridge, makes sure at least 60 per cent of cafeteria fare is healthy, including options like stir-fry, milk and sandwiches on 12-grain bread. But that doesn't stop many kids from opting for french fries and chicken fingers, which are also on offer. "Twenty years ago we weren't so big on packaged and processed foods. Now it's okay in society to eat that. What's not okay is that we're turning out to be unhealthy adults and that's putting a strain on our health-care system," Dogra said. Monique Gazan, Dogra's geography teacher, heard about the Making the Grade project and encouraged her Grade 9 students to get involved. Dogra is the only one who took it all the way and Gazan is hoping her bill will make a difference. "Yesterday, I had a girl say, `That's why we go down to the cafeteria, to get the junk.' You have to know what that junk is doing to you," Gazan said. Dogra, who can rattle off statistics about the cost of youth obesity, clearly knows what it can do. "I don't eat at the caf. My mom packs a lunch for me." But it wasn't just a passion for healthy food that made her take the class project all the way to Queen's Park. "My big motivation was that the MPPs wanted to listen to our ideas," Dogra said. "My dad always says when opportunity comes knocking on the door the pessimist complains about the noise and the optimist opens the door." After the bills were introduced, Premier Dalton McGuinty chatted with the students and posed for pictures. "I just wanted to drop by and say hello to you, thank you and let you know I'm very proud of you," McGuinty said. "You are breaking new ground." As he was leaving, he said: "One more question. Should I eliminate homework in Ontario?" Predictably, they responded yes, though this really is a homework-doing crowd. A private member's bill isn't a regular bill. It is introduced by an individual MPP, of any party, rather than by a cabinet minister as a government bill. That means it can't count on enough support to be passed. These bills rarely become legislation, but they do bring attention to ideas, which the government has been known to introduce later in legislation of its own. Wise thinks these bills will have a better chance than most. Either way, the students have "sparked debate" and learned more about how laws are created than most adults will ever know. -- Diva **** Lack of actions leads to no desired changes |
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