Canadian Jesuits International’s outreach program, which is an integral part of its mission, continues to grow and engage Canadians.

The program includes educational advocacy with students from Catholic secondary schools across Canada, whom we encourage to become responsible global citizens, and to work for social transformation.

This work has borne fruit among students who have decided to work alongside CJI and our Jesuit partners.

Baljot Rai, a grade 12 student from St. Paul’s Catholic High School in Winnipeg has been a CJI volunteer since he was in grade 10. CJI has been “instrumental in shaping my perspective of the world, opening my eyes to issues we often overlook,” he said.

Baljot served on the planning committee for the 2021 Youth Advocacy (Y4O) Symposium and is on the planning committee for the 2024 Symposium. He serves on CJI’s Outreach Committee. His involvement with CJI, he said, has “helped me realize that as youth, we can, and certainly will lead change.”

Baljot was actively involved in last year’s advocacy work, which focused on Green Justice: Human rights and energy transition. The theme highlighted the impact of resource extraction for critical minerals in the development of green energy technology, on communities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We were fortunate to have Fr Jacques Nzumbu SJ, a specialist in conflict minerals and energy transition technologies, as our key Jesuit partner in this campaign. His presentations in various cities highlighted the impacts of mineral extraction on the environment and on people, particularly children and women involved in the supply chains of consumer products such as mobile phones, electric vehicles, and solar modules.

In Canada, the lack of mandatory human rights due diligence legislation has created a situation where the extractive industry operates in the Global South with impunity. CJI had a dialogue with several Members of Parliament across party lines on this issue and asked them to support Bill C-262 and Bill C-263 that call for mandatory due diligence and greater power for the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise.

Over the course of the year, CJI engaged over 850 secondary level students with the Green Justice material and advocacy call through 15 events involving 24 schools across Ottawa, Durham, Toronto and Hamilton. One of the events brought together five secondary schools in the Hamilton/Wentworth Catholic Board of Education. The youth planning committee visited their MP, Matthew Green, on green energy justice and encouraged him to support Bills C-262 and Bill C-263.

In 2024, the theme for the Y4O Advocacy Symposium is Education: Her Right, Our Future, and will address the barriers faced by girls in the Global South in exercising their right to education. In the leadup to the event, CJI Executive Director Jenny Cafiso spoke at a webinar, Empowering a New Generation: Girls' Education as a Path to Global Change, co-organized by CJI and the Jesuits of Canada in May 2023. We are looking forward once more to everyone’s active participation in upcoming events.