Mayor of Anjou, our children deserve to be listened to and respected!

Letter to Hocine,

For the past few days, I can’t help but congratulate Hocine for his courage and the correctness of his approach to the mayor of Anjou.

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The story of Hocine, you may have heard of it. It is this young man of 15 who presented himself to the municipal council of the borough to ask for the reopening of a soccer field with free access which benefits young people (the latter having been closed by the elected official for cause vandalism). Hocine addressed the mayor politely and calmly presented his point as a full-fledged citizen, in a most democratic assembly.

An involved and committed young person

What a beautiful step you will tell me! To see a young person so involved and committed, making good use of the recourses of the municipal system to avail himself of his fundamental rights and to defend the well-being of young people in his borough. It is indeed inspiring for our world of tomorrow!

But instead of encouragement, Hocine had an end of inadmissibility, in a belligerent and disrespectful tone for him and his parents, and thus discrediting all the merits of his approach (citizen, let us remember) . Why such outburst? Words fail me today to qualify this outrageous scene and very little worthy of an elected official…

So Hocine, I am addressing you today to congratulate you for having had the courage of your ideas, for having believed in a better world and for having wanted to try to change things in the most democratic way possible. . Never let yourself be impressed by vain attempts at destabilization. Continue to express yourself to defend your rights and for the well-being of young people. And above all, never forget that the future will be built with you and thanks to you!

Openness and kindness

As for you, Mr Miranda, you are 67 years old, you have been mayor for 25 years, that is to say practically as many years as those that I spent with the children, on a daily basis. It is important to me to tell you that in all knowledge of the facts, our children are inspiring, they deserve to be listened to and respected. Young people are your electors of tomorrow, but above all they are our citizens today and they have a set of rights enshrined in a Convention signed by most countries in the world. It is time for openness and benevolence and we all have a duty to implement respect for all the rights set out in the Convention on the Rights of the Child ratified in Canada in 1991.

With all due respect,

Dr Gilles Julien, social pediatrician (and convinced defender of the rights of children and young people)