UNICEF Canada calls for children’s rights and safety to be ‘paramount’ in public health protests across the country

For the past three weeks, organized protests concerning COVID-19 public health mandates have occurred at various locations across the country. Children have been present at some of these protests, and many more have been affected by them. We call on all parties to ensure that the rights and safety of children are given paramount importance.

Children have the right to freedom of association and peaceful assembly; to form and express their own opinions; and to be heard in decisions that affect them. They also have the right to be free from coercion and unlawful interference with their privacy, family, home, honour and reputation. They have the right to safety and protection from harassment and discrimination. They have the right to education and to play. Protest and police action alike must respect these rights to the greatest extent possible, and should ensure the safety of the children involved at all times.

We are particularly concerned with reports of children in parks and at schools being targeted for harassment for conforming with public health mandates such as wearing a mask in public. In some places, schools were forced to make the decision to close due to perceived risk to the safety of children and staff. Attempts have been made to manipulate children into walking out of school in association with the protest. Schools, students, and staff must be considered off limits to this type of political protest and influence. School zones should be designated and treated as safe areas, just as hospitals and health centres have been.

Further, the attempt to conflate public health mandates with the residential school system, including the use of orange shirts and the “Every Child Matters” slogan, is entirely inappropriate. UNICEF Canada stands with Phyllis Webstad and other Indigenous leaders who have condemned these acts of misappropriation and other racist actions and remarks of the protest organizers. 

With regard to those children who have been brought to or freely joined protest sites, we trust the proper authorities including locally-mandated child protection agencies, will continue to monitor and act to keep children safe. We also remind the media and public figures that the politicization of children and child protection measures only serves to escalate rhetoric that may increase the risk posed to the children involved, as opposed to alleviating it.

Finally, the government’s decision to invoke the Emergency Measures Act is an extraordinary step that requires utmost diligence for child, human and civil rights. The Prime Minister has assured Canadians that the scope of any measures that may be taken under these powers will be “time-limited, geographically-targeted, and proportionate to the threats they are meant to address.” All measures should further be subject to a Child Rights Impact Assessment (CRIA) to ensure the government continues to meet its duties and obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.