For those of us born within the last 20 years, our generation is the first generation to be born into a Canadian society where the Convention on the Rights of a Child was already firmly ratified and established.

I am convinced we can change the lives of kids by paying attention to them. When we find ourselves in positions of policy or government or influence, we can be their voice to stop violence from happening to millions of children every year in our cities.

In Canada, we need to find ourselves thankful for government leadership, and those who are trying to build upon the convention with Canadian laws to protect our children. For example, Conservative MP Joy Smith has been fighting hard to pass Bill C-268, a bill to put mandatory minimums on anyone caught trafficking minors in or through Canada. Recently, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson tabled Bill C-58, which would make it a legal requirement for anyone who provides web services to report if someone on their server is posting child pornography. These are opportunities to applaud the government.

We are the first generation to grow with an innate understanding of the priority in valuing human rights just because people are people. We are the first generation to carry the burden of justice as thousands of us flood into developing nations, into policy work, into political science and changing the world as we know it. We are the first generation to see the legalization of homosexuality, the freedom of abortion and the freedom of individual rights.

Arguably at the same time, our generation walks in entitlement, vanity and pride like no other, claiming anything in the name of rights and thus skewing human dignity.

Children are our future and that cannot be stopped. Nothing we do or say can stop the cycle of one generation dying to make room for a new generation rising. It is the way life works — the way it has been made to work. We need to know how to be able to sow into what we cannot see. We need to know how to live our lives in such a way that makes those who are children now be able to rise into greatness as they grow up. We need to be able to know how to speak to children and make them feel loved, protected and worthy.

As a child I grew up in situations where I was not protected. I experienced many things such as emotional and sexual abuse, the emotional absence of my mom, divorce and court battles. Instability creates room for vulnerability. I know what it is like to wonder if you are going to be attacked again or why your parents use you like a pawn in a game of chess.

I know how it feels to be traumatized and to have that same trauma enter into your adult years and weaken your ability to make good decisions, good relationships and live a good life. I know what it feels like to try so long to just survive, and in the end you never really know how to live.

The beauty is we were all children once.

We understand what it was once like to have the opportunity to play and the chance to dream and imagine being someone else, somewhere at a different time in history.

It is a crime when that is taken away. When children become counsellors to their moms and punching bags to their dads, when they become cooks and maids to their families, and mothers to small siblings and when they become the casualties to divorce and abuse, this is a grave injustice.

You have an unharnessed power sitting inside of you. You have the power to bring to life an international convention now and in the years to come. You have the power to raise a generation who know who they are.

Do not forget that you are just a moment in history, and you have the opportunity to be a moment that could change everything for a generation.