Christine Grimard
Northern News Services
Published Friday, December 14, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - After weeks of work and preparations, a group of Sir John Franklin high school students headed off to New York Dec. 3 to represent Canada at a mini version of the United Nations.

Six students were selected to take part in the 10th Annual Student UN Conference on Human Rights from Dec. 5 to 7 at the UN Headquarters. They joined 70 other youth from around the world to discuss this year's theme: Recognizing the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Canada was one of the few countries in the UN not to sign on to the recent declaration in support of the rights of aboriginal groups.

Pauline Gordon, the assistant deputy minister for the Department of Education, Culture, and Employment, was to join the students, and address the conference as a keynote speaker. Before the conference, Gordon said she didn't plan on addressing Canada's opposition to the declaration.

"It doesn't matter (to us) because we still work within a framework as if we had those rights," said Gordon. "To us it would be a bonus, so we really have to be conscious of the face that we can't give up, that people are aware of what we have to do."

With her father a Metis from Fort Vermilion in Alberta and her mother an Inupiat from Alaska, Gordon said she planned on telling her family history to articulate the story of aboriginal people in Canada.

The outcomes of the students' discussions are to be webcast on the UN's Cyberschoolbus website.