Malala Yousafzai given honorary Canadian citizenship

NDP foreign affairs critic Hélène Laverdière says pressure to increase funding hasn’t just been coming from Yousafzai, but from multilateral groups, civil society and the NDP.

She was the youngest ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize at the age of 17, and now she has been made the youngest ever UN Messenger of Peace.

Ms. Yousafzai’s courageous response to those who threatened her life, and her advocacy for girls’ education, has inspired many millions of people around the world. Her actions got the Taliban’s attention, and in 2012, two of its members almost killed her.

Men should not clip the “wings of women and let them fly”.

She also praised Canada’s embrace of refugees and its ongoing worldwide development work for women and girls. People usually when they get all these honors become full of vanity, they become hard to access, but you are this fantastic example of friendship and simplicity that really makes us very, very, very appreciative.

Amazingly, she survived the brutal attack.

On April 12th, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau honored Yousafzai for her bravery, strength ability to move forward without fear for her life.

Malala refused to be silenced, despite the death threats.

Earlier today she was a surprise guest at an Ottawa area high-school In response to a question about some cultural attitudes that value boys over girls she told students that barriers to girls education is not limited to extremism or poverty, and people need to step up and challenge such beliefs.

That afternoon, then-prime minister Stephen Harper, his wife Laureen, Ambrose and a star-studded line-up of other Canadian women were to gather and declare the activist only the sixth person to hold the designation of honorary Canadian citizen. Yousafzai said that when she finishes secondary school in June, she would like to study philosophy, politics and economics at university.

“With sorrow in our hearts, we headed back to England, promising to return to Canada one day”.

Malala, in her remarks, said the most hard time she faced had been from 2007 to 2009 in the Swat Valley.

She required multiple surgeries, but suffered no major brain damage and returned to school in Birmingham in March 2013. She would hide her books under her scarf and be woken at night by bombs going off nearby. “Once you educate girls, you change the whole community, you change the whole world”.

‘I have seen them, I have went to refugee camps, and I think he needs to go to these refugee camps.

And it has been. Unfortunately for Malala, many Pakistanis appear to share the Taliban’s view on her life and work. She became a “symbol of the infidels and obscenity”. “And I want to thank Canada for its passion, for girls’ education, for its passion for humanity for refugees and for standing up for women’s rights and for peace”.

And she joked about Trudeau, Canada’s 45-year-old prime minister. Who could realistically argue to the contrary, after taking a look at the plight of all those countries where women’s rights remain suppressed?

In his own address on Wednesday, Trudeau said Yousafzai is the “true embodiment of leadership and service” and a “model of kindness”. Undoubtedly, she makes us proud by each new honour that is bestowed on her by the world, but we do not give her credit because of our bigotry and narrow mindedness.

Even the most embittered cynic can’t deny her courage or commitment. She was shot in the head, neck and shoulder.

“I wanted to say that Trudeau is an fantastic person and an inspiration”, she said, later noting in her speech that “he does yoga, he has tattoos”. We live in a world where so many borders closed; so many doors are closed. “These are the defining traits of the Pakistani people who are determined to defeat the forces of intolerance”, she added.

I wish her every success in this, her new country, Canada.