G20 weekend in Toronto

Normally I don’t write about political issues, but I’m going to make an exception today because of what happened in Toronto these last few days. For me it was, even though unfortunate- expected, not wanted- but expected. Hope against hope, I, like a lot of residents of Toronto were crossing our fingers that we would skip the violence. But, when one follows the trends of other cities hosting the G20 summit, it is quite a “normal” part of the protests.

I feel very uncomfortable and upset that something like that would happen in Toronto. We generally have a peaceful city and as the media is quick to say, this is the first time that something like that has happened in Toronto. This, of course is a record we Torontonians are proud of and it is a shame that a bunch of people whose only agenda is destruction and violence should be the ones to break that record!

As a writer for children’s books, I’m always concerned about the impact of “adult issues” has on our kids and how they see these situations. It is an unfortunate circumstance that some of our kids were exposed to the dramatic situations this weekend.

I overheard a child ask his father: “Why are there were so many police here? Why do they have guns? Are cars that were on fire were part of a movie?” The poor father had a very hard time trying to explain the situation to his son.

Shocked by what the little boy had said and I started to wonder how the children saw what actually happened here this weekend. I was able to ask some children what they thought about the violence that they had witnessed.

There were circumstances under which these children were exposed. They live close to the area or were in an area that was deemed safe until the riots unexpectedly took a turn for the worst –literally. The children ranged from ages 8-12 and this is what they had to say:

“The people who hurt other people are not nice- they have to go to jail” Michael aged 8.

“Do those people want to hurt us?” – Allison 8 years old.

“Are the people going to come to my house?” Tyler – 10 years old.

“Some people have to shout and be angry because they want something they don’t have”

Jody – aged 12

How do you answer these questions? How do you quell the fear that is underlying those questions? Do we tell our children that the world at times is not safe? Do we protect the children and make sure that they live their lives with rose-coloured glasses firmly planted on their noses? Do we tell them what this is all about? Is it appropriate? What is appropriate?

When I brought up these questions to a few parents I realized that they were struggling with those questions and it became quite a discussion.

There are parents who feel that their children should see what happens in the world today.

“Because they need to know” was the answer.

Other parents want to protect their children from scenes like this.

“Because they don’t need to know, yet” was the other answer.

So the question is:

Is there a right or wrong answer for this issue and for that matter for other world issues? When do we expose our children to these issues?

Struggling to find the correct way to answer those questions, I think we can all work together to raise our kids in a way that they become responsible, level headed adults, who are not afraid to stand up for what they believe in, but who also respect other people’s opinions, lives and livelihoods.