The Global Citizenship Conference (GCC) is typically held in March, but this year’s has been re-scheduled for September. For the conference’s planners, this reflects a long-discussed need for change.

Founded in 2006 by McMaster students, the GCC aimed to engage students in global and local issues and develop passionate activists and advocates. In its inaugural year, Dr. Phil Wood, Associate Vice-President of Student Affairs, referred to GCC as “the most impressive student event I have seen in my past 30 years at McMaster.”

Past speakers at the GCC included Council of Canadians chair Maude Barlow, AIDS activist and former McMaster Professor Stephen Lewis and former Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff.

Shanthiya Baheerathan, GCC Co-Chair of Logistics, explained how over the years the March timing has just not fit well into the student calendar and leaves little room for follow-up after the conference.

“The idea of having it at the beginning of the year is to build a community early on and to have a thread of student involvement continue for the whole year.”

This year, GCC has been hosting smaller but regular panel series on topics such as Idle No More and Think Global, Act Local. On March 5, they will host a panel on Refugee Health.

Shahana Hirji, Co-Chair of Programming, described how the GCC wants to put a higher emphasis on grassroots forms of engagement. Recent panel topics and local activists and instructors chosen to be on the panel are a result of the community focus.

Baheerathan also discussed funding issues that may have precluded a large-scale conference from occurring this semester. She reiterated that in addition to faculty-based funding, the GCC team will be looking to apply for external funding and community grants for the September conference.

In the past, the GCC promoted to other universities and high school students, which attracted more conference attendees.

Baheerathan wants to try to attract more students in a new way by leveraging the already large network of student clubs on campus.

“We want to establish GCC as a hub for social justice clubs on campus. Mac has a lot of different groups, and the GCC wants to create a more cohesive movement where the GCC supports clubs,” said Baheerathan.

But in order to do this, the planners recognize they will need to rebuild the GCC’s brand on campus.

Fariha Husain, Co-Chair of Networking, described how there has been diminished support for and knowledge of the GCC. Husain also emphasized how the current group is working hard to expand the GCC base and recruit students for the conference team.

“We will be looking for conference team planners around mid- to late-March for the September conference. We want to promote heavily through social media to make it a staple event. This is something that requires student interest and a robust discussion amongst student members.”

Dina Fanara

Assistant News Editor

In preparation for the upcoming Global Citizenship Conference (GCC), taking place at McMaster on March 9 and 10, the GCC’s organization committee and the World University Services of Canada (WUSC) hosted a discussion panel with regards to world issues on March 5.

The main focus of the discussion centered around the concepts of “bottom-up” and “top-down” approaches to peacekeeping and peace-building initiatives.

The panellists consisted of five influential speakers present at the pre-conference event: Robert O’Brien, the chair of Department of Political Science, Leo Johnson, a refugee from Liberia and recent graduate from McMaster University, Shawn Cheung, the founder of raising the Village NGO and a representative for Canada to the UN and Jessica Franklin, a McMaster Political Sciences professor.

According to one of the moderators for the event, an executive representative of WUSC, the purpose of the discussion panel involved “challenging ways in which we encourage development.” She also said that the “idea of bottom-up approaches to development [is] a new fresh take on ways to change the world.”

The first question presented to the panel was, “Is it fair to separate top-down and bottom-up methods to development?” In response to this question, O’Brien discussed the importance of understanding what is meant by top-down and bottom-up.

What is understood to be “top” can be international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund or World Bank. However, this may also include certain dominant thoughts and theories, certain states over others, or large corporations.

Johnson noted that, “what can be the top in one conversation can be the bottom in another conversation.” He continued, “bottom-up usually becomes the reality . . . there has to be a certain structure or access to power.”

The remainder of the discussion blossomed out of the topics brought up after the initial question. Later in the discussion, Franklin brought up an important point: “immediately when I think of top down and bottom up, gender comes to mind . . . when we look at the notion of top down and bottom up approaches, I look at who is situated in [places of power] . . . whether or not these can be seen as gender neutral.”

When asked about what can be done to instill more balance in international development, Cheung acknowledged that “we don’t need another big player, we need somebody who can understand the region.”

This event served as a glimpse into this year’s Global Citizenship Conference, touching upon several of the topics which will be the topic of further discussed this upcoming weekend.

The Global Citizenship Conference has been running annually for five years and is looking forward to seeing the same overwhelming suppport this year.

Anqi Shen
The Silhouette

One is a street nurse in Toronto, and the other is the executive director of an organization with headquarters in Toronto and outreach in Africa.

Cathy Crowe and Shawn Cheung know a thing or two about how to affect change – a buzzword that has drawn its share of sceptics. The two activists will speak about the challenges and rewards of their work at this year’s Global Citizenship Conference.

Since graduating from McMaster University with a bachelor of commerce in 2005, Cheung’s job has involved advising Fortune 500 companies on how to optimize business development.

In 2006, he put his business expertise to use for a personal cause, launching the non-profit organization Raising the Village. The organization works to recover some of the most remote communities in Uganda, where households earn about 30 cents USD per day.

From the get-go, Cheung and his team have focused on creating sustainable models of growth—one of the most challenging steps, Cheung said, for companies and non-profits alike.

It’s only after being invited by a Ugandan NGO that Raising the Village staff begin implementing a recovery project for a specific area. Donors make a one-time investment to see the project flourish on a grassroots level, rather than repeatedly giving monetary aid that may never see its purpose fulfilled.

Cheung is a strong proponent of the ‘think globally, act locally’ mentality. “Not everyone has to go to Africa to make a significant impact,” he said, despite having trekked and volunteered in Uganda himself.

“It’s really about starting conversations,” said Cheung. “Many of the locals I spoke with in Uganda have great ideas for their future – they just don’t know how to get started or who to contact. I think everyone should at least have that opportunity.”

Cathy Crowe, another Torontonian, shares Cheung’s passion for sustainable development and stresses the need to “act rather than just witness.”

Crowe worked as a community help nurse for several years before unexpectedly falling into advocacy for the homeless in Toronto. A strong supporter of social assistance programs, Crowe co-founded the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee, whose slogan prompts all levels of governments to commit an extra one per cent to their affordable housing budgets.

“My entire nursing career has been in Toronto’s downtown core,” said Crowe. “Over the past 20 years, we’ve seen supporters of the homeless retreat. But everything we saw on the streets became a national, socio-economic disaster, and everything that was happening in Toronto was happening in other communities.”

Like Cheung, she advocates for working toward change at the grassroots level.

“We need to develop responses that aren’t based on the idea that some poor are deserving of help and others are not,” she said. “There are creative ways you can bring people together to figure out long-term strategies.”

Crowe and Cheung will visit campus on March 10 to speak as keynotes for McMaster’s 7th annual Global Citizenship Conference.

The conference works toward a social consciousness that is rooted in local communities and extends across the globe. This year’s theme is “Activism is not dead.” It’s a slogan that’s bound to stick, but also leaves plenty of room for inquiry. Is activism dead, after all? Is it in need of re-activation?

For Cheung, the answer to the second question is yes. “With the rise of social media, globalization activism is beginning to take on a new form,” he said. “One of the trends we’ve seen is the expectation that gen X would come back and save the world, but that hasn’t happened. We need to be able to ‘activate’ the millennial generation into taking action, which they are very capable of doing.”

McMaster’s Global Citizenship Conference will be held in Hamilton Hall on Saturday, March 10.