Mac Olsen
Express Staff
Each year, National Child Day is held on Nov. 20.
This year, Crystal Marschner, the Family and Youth Program Coordinator for Smoky River Family and Community Support Services, held assemblies at several schools to highlight children’s rights.
“I hope they understand that they have the right to be safe, that they have the right to worship the way they want to, the right to food and to be whom they want to be,” says Marschner.
She made videos at Ecole Routhier and Ecole Providence, with a separate one at Ecole Heritage as it was all in French.
Marschner asked three questions:
1. Are they aware they have rights under the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child?
2. Why do they think it’s important to have rights?
3. What does it mean to be safe?
The school assembly is how Marschner plans to deliver the National Child Day content in the future.
As per the nationalchildday.ca website, “National Child Day is celebrated annually in Canada on November 20th in recognition of our country’s commitment to upholding the rights of children and two historic events: the 1959 signing of the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child and the adoption of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child in 1989.”