Our Responsibility to Youth

Mr. Seymour

Your Excellencies, My Lord the Queen's Chief Justice of Ontario, Right Honourable, Very Rev., Hon. Ladies and Gentlemen, Consul-General, Gallant and Distinguished Presidents of the Loyal Societies, ladies and gentlemen: Every Armistice Day, The Empire Club of Canada salutes the fallen in our traditional Toast to the Valiant. This year, the salute will be given by MGen. Bruce Legge, the Colonel Commandant of the Logistics of the Canadian Armed Forces and the Chairman of the Metro International Caravan.

MGen. Bruce Legge

Mr. President, Your Excellencies, My Lord the Queen's Chief Justice of Ontario, Right Honourable, Right Reverend, Honourable ladies and gentlemen, Consul General, Gallant and Distinguished Presidents of the Loyal

Societies, Ladies and Gentlemen:

As you have just heard from the Chairman's formal introduction, the Loyal Societies always recognize the distinctions of our guests. Today, we remember the men and women who served Canada and the Crown to the utmost in our wars of freedom and justice. They gave everything to Canada's cause of opposing cruel tyrannies in the world wars and in Korea. They did not believe that "International law should be ignored by the evil and not enforced by the righteous."

What is there to say of the deaths of those for whom time stood still while they were very young? One of Your Excellency's most illustrious predecessors, the Rt. Hon. Roland Michener, volunteered for the Royal Air Force in Canada in the spring of 1918. This year he celebrated his 85th birthday as the President of the Masters Games.

What are we to say of those who served and bear the grievous scars of war, like your gallant predecessor, Maj. Gen. the Rt. Hon. Georges Vanier, who delighted to tell us how he joined the Regular Army in the 1920s.

"My legal life was rather sedentary, and I seemed to be losing weight at a rather alarming rate. Therefore when the Royal Vingt-Deuxieme Regiment was being reformed, I decided to return to the Army. So I went to Ottawa, where Sir Arthur Currie was then Inspector General of the Forces. I asked him to find a place for me in the regiment. He laughed at me-nicely, but he laughed. He said, `You have lost a leg.' So I said: `I know that. But don't you want a few officers with brains as well as legs?' What he really liked, I think, was my modesty. I left him without any expectations at all. We both laughed and we both knew, or I felt anyway, that there was no hope. But within three weeks I was appointed a second-in-command of Le Royal Vingt-Deuxieme Regiment."

For those who volunteered and served where they were commanded, the Crown and Canada recognized their service, which might be described in the motto of Your Excellency's Toronto regiment, the governor General's Horse Guards, as "Nulli secundus" ("Second to none"). The Crown, veterans, and Loyal Societies are bound together by the words of a French maxim, "La loyaute m'oblige. " ("Loyalty compels me.")

Quel est l'ideal principal des quatorze societes loyales ici representes qui font honneur a Votre Excellence aujourd'hui? `La loyaute m'oblige.' La loyaute m'oblige d servir et d ne pas etre servi, ce qui est la tradition de la Reine du Canada, que vows, Votre Excellence, represent si bien personnellement ici.

It is loyalty that compels us-to serve as Governor General, as a member of the armed forces, as a member of the Loyal Societies, and as a Canadian.

Ladies and gentlemen, in the presence of Her Excellency the representative of the Queen in Canada and remembering the motto of Le Royal Vingt-Deuxieme Regiment "Je me souviens" ("I remember"), would you please rise and drink with me the toast to the immortal memory of the valiant?

Mr. Seymour

I now have the great pleasure of introducing the Right Honourable Jeanne Sauve, the personal representative of The Queen in Canada. Madame Sauve is also the Commander in Chief and the Governor General of Canada.

Her investiture May 14, 1984, as the country's 23rd Governor General and the first woman to hold the post was a momentous event, breaking 116 years of Canadian tradition.

But significant firsts have been common occurences for Jeanne Sauve. She was the first woman to become Speaker of the House of Commons; the year was 1980. In addition, she was the first woman federal cabinet minister from Quebec; the portfolio was Science and Technology, the year was 1972.

Madame Sauve was born Jeanne Benoit in April, 1922, in

Prud'homme, Sask., a small town 30 miles northeast of Saskatoon. When her building contractor father, Charles, completed his construction projects there in 1925, the family moved back to Ottawa.

After a convent education and studies at the University of Ottawa and the University of Paris, Jeanne Sauve settled into the fashionable society of Montreal in the late 1940's and the early 1950's, working first as an enthusiastic student organizer and later as a broadcaster and a journalist. In 1948, she married Maurice Sauve, a businessman and former federal politician who once served as Minister of Mines and Rural Development. They have one son, JeanFrangois who, I am pleased to announce, is with us today. Welcome.

Breaking 116 years of tradition was one of the most comfortably traditional choices former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau could have made. Madame Sauve is bilingual, a superb hostess, and a mature, dignified public figure known for her discretion and diplomacy.

Of her vice-regal appointment, Madame Sauve said:

"It is a great thing to be asked to symbolize a nation and its aspirations and to try to make the people of this country more conscious of their country."

Ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to introduce Her Excellency the Right Honourable Jeanne Sauve, who will address us on the topic "Our Responsibility to Youth".

Madame Sauve

Mr. Chairman, Mr. Michener, My Lord Chief Justice of Ontario, Your Honours, Messrs. Presidents, distinguished head-table guests, ladies and gentlemen, mesdames, messieurs: Thank you very much, Mr. President, for those very gracious words of introduction.

It is, of course, a very great pleasure for me to be here, although I delayed it for nearly a year, and to address this joint meeting of the Empire and Canadian Clubs and the Loyal Societies.

Chacune de vos associations a un long passe. Leur importante contribution d la vie Canadienne provient de ce qu'elles se sont appliquees d promouvoir la connaissance intellectuelle et l'eveil aux realites culturelles, s'engageant ainsi d defendre les grands principes du patriotisme et de la democratie. En offrant des tribunes de la nature de celle-ci d des personnes de divers horizons en vue de permettre des echanges d'idees, vos organismes respectifs ont fait beaucoup pour stimuler le mouvement de la pensee et de la nouveaute d travers le Canada; tout cela a marque de faCon continue l'evolution et le progres de notre societe et de notre civilisation.

It is perhaps the fate of Governors General to be witness throughout their tenure to so much which compels them to opinion, yet to be restricted by the nature of the office in speaking about what they know. A predecessor of mine, who is present, once said that most of the time he was restricted to "Governor Generalities." However, it's the function of Governor General to have some substance. Surely it is worth exploring what he or she may stand for publicly, while keeping it above political controversy.

There is one topic about which I need not remain silent I am sure: a matter of such critical importance to this country that I have chosen it as the principal focus and preoccupation of my tenure as Governor General of this nation. You will recall that some of my predecessors to this office have, in turn, encouraged and promoted causes, such as the arts, energy conservation, the family, and so on.

I speak, of course, about the youth of this country: of the concern I have for the forthcoming generations and the fact that we, as the current leaders and authorities of the day, should take time from pursuit of our own ambition to nurture, encourage and provide real opportunities for those who will succeed us. This, in may ways, means jobs for the young unemployed.

Youth as a whole, I find, has relatively few champions these days. Society is perhaps still reeling in the wake of the rebellion of the Sixties and Seventies and the distrust that was engendered by that period of social upheaval. The more recent styles among young people, indicative of their very deep feelings, are perhaps no less bewildering. The first generation, to which I have referred, of course are no longer young, and we should have learned from that particular experience that the younger generation are entitled to their own means of expression and debate. However upsetting it may be, there is a time for reconciliation.

I must say I was very much heartened recently to hear of the concern His Highness the Prince of Wales has expressed for the young people of Britain. His unusually vocal support and-let's say it, let's admit it-the tremendous humanity he has displayed toward the plight of the young of his own country, will perhaps bring to the attention of the public in Britain and around the world the fact that this is a generation in crisis; that the burdens they will have to bear are to a large measure, inherited from preceding generations. And I have no intention of filling this room with a lot of guilt.

Critics are prone to argue that the problem of youth today is that they have been given too much, too easily, and have subsequently lost the will to work or the ambition to succeed. They were reared in a consumer-oriented society and were naturally influenced by the emphasis on materialism.

I believe, however, that, while technology has afforded them luxuries that were beyond our means at that time in our lives, they have had to pay a heavy price for the benefits of this progress-and at a cost that may not be as visible as their relative affluence.

I speak here of their opportunity to satisfy two very strong and universal spiritual needs of mankind, needs so vital to our sense of well-being that we will deny ourselves almost anything to attain them.

Put in the very simplest of terms, they are the need to feel you belong, to have a sense that there is a place where you do not have to deserve to come; and secondly, the need to become something, to realize some hope of achieving your potential as a contributing member of the society to which you belong.

I would think it far more difficult for a young person to achieve a sense of belonging in the world today than it was in previous times. With the greater mobility of the Twentieth Century and the trend away from permanence, many young people have lost the security of having roots in one location and with it the sense of continuity and identity within the community.

Changes within the family have had a definite impact on young people as well. Economic realities demand that parents concentrate more time and energy on ensuring the financial, rather than the moral or emotional, security of the home. The increased rate of separation and divorce, and the demands of the one-parent family, strand children in domestic limbo, while, even in the more traditional family settings, changes in the morals and values of society, coupled with the declining influence of morality and religion, have obscured the parameters of all expectations.

While social change and evolution is not necessarily bad, and, in fact, is a necessary adjustment to changing economic and environmental realities, it does produce a period of instability. In the midst of this transition, the development of a strong and secure sense of worth and identity is a more complex enterprise. In this contemporary search for belonging, we might find the reasons underlying the growing attraction among the young of such phenomena as cults, and an explanation for the intense and sometimes destructive loyalty that some teens feel toward their peers.

What are their chances of becoming successful? What promise have we given young people that they are welcome or even wanted in the mainstream of society? If having worked hard for an education, for instance, they simply do not have a job. We have fought very hard in our time and over the years to assure all young Canadians an equality of opportunity, firstly through the democratization of education, and later through our efforts to ensure that all men and women were free to pursue their particular ambitions without discrimination.

We have made great strides towards satisfying these two objectives, but other equally critical issues have been created in their wake. A good education no longer brings with it the assurance of employment. In an increasingly competitive market, the skills and talents that our young people have developed may not be needed. Statistics place one out of every five young people in the lines of the unemployed.

And they are understandably disillusioned with a system in which they wish to participate, but which consistently rejects them. Every time we turn a young person away, we deny him or her the fulfilment of that basic need to become something, to feel he or she has a value and a place in this society.

"So irrepressible in youth is the thrust to become," one specialist has warned, "that it will surface somehow, if not in constructive self-expression, then in wilful vandalism or defiant apathy or even suicide as an ultimate, tragic expression of self-determination."

Are the growing numbers of unemployed youth who turn to crime or try to dull their disillusionment with alcohol and drugs not a manifestation of this undeniable need of selfexpression?

I am certain that I have told you ladies and gentlemen nothing new about the plight of the youth of this country, but it is a subject that I feel goes straight to the heart of every compassionate and enlightened Canadian. We have a real duty to accept our role as the mentors of this generation, and we must be willing to assume that responsibility at a very personal and active level if we are to ensure that the tremendous potential of our young people is not to be wasted. A generation might go by-and can we afford that?

The first step of that process is to alter the attitude that views young people only as dependents and somewhat peripheral to the mainstream of Canadian life. In many ways, it is the same plight we had when we were young, although expressed, of course, very differently. What must we do? Well, first of all, we must challenge them-not take it up for them, but challenge them-to take the responsibility for their future into their own hands and then, to the degree that we can, help provide them with the means and opportunities to make known their concerns and opinions to those who have the authority and legitimacy to act upon them.

In these past few decades, we have perhaps become too complacent, assuming that governments alone can create adequate opportunity for the youth of this country, especially in the field of employment. Governments have acted. Others around the world have acted. But all industrialized societies are experiencing the limits of government programmes. Can we not, as individuals, rise to this new challenge in our society?

Too often I have heard businessmen and women complain that, in these tough and competitive economic times, they cannot afford to hire inexperienced workers to fulfil their job quotas. They are either excess, or even worse, overqualified. How are we to cope? We have to begin experimenting with new and fresh ideas.

Some corporations have begun that process. They have decided, for instance, to hire above their needs, to readjust their priorities and expectations and assume a margin of risk, as an investment in the quality and dignity of the workers of tomorrow. Others, such as banks and credit unions, have already taken the initiative of offering interest-free loans to enterprising young people who want to set up their own businesses.

Some companies have responded to the current situation with job-creating projects that will, over the next five years, offer hundreds of young people the opportunity to get a solid three-year record of experience behind them. It brings no promise of permanency, but rather the hope that is engendered through a solid beginning, a chance to belong and to achieve, at a very critical and tenuous period of their lives. In this particular case, the unions were on side.

If there is one message that I wish to leave with you today, it is that our youth is ready and willing to take control of their destiny. How they will do it, through what means they will make their will known, and to what extent they will have the appropriate knowledge and skills to cope with the very difficult issues of tomorrow, will depend largely on them. But they need our help.

We are not necessarily responsible for their total future, but we can offer our own skills.

As I said at Rideau Hall to a group of corporate presidents that I invited particularly to talk about this very topic: Bring your acquired management skills to the resolution of this very grave problem. Our responsibility to the future is far greater than we realize. If that future is to be one of promise and prosperity, it is essential that we inspire our youth now with the task of building on that which we have accomplished. We must guide them through example as well as rhetoric and in a spirit of compassion, tolerance, and humanity. They are ready to allow us into their new venture in a spirit of mutual exchange.

The appreciation of the audience was expressed by James B. Pitblado, President of The Canadian Club of Toronto.