REC student, alumnus honoured

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This article was published 17/12/2021 (1360 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two students from River East Collegiate are being recognized internationally for their work towards nuclear disarmament. 

Grade 12 student Rooj Ali and Avinash Singh, a 2021 graduate now attending the University of Manitoba, have been nominated for 2021 Arms Control Person(s) of the Year by the Washington, D.C.-based Arms Control Association.

“In a field that is often focused on grave threats and negative developments, our Arms Control Person(s) of the Year contest aims to highlight several positive initiatives — some large, some small — designed to advance international peace, security, and justice,” noted Daryl G. Kimball, executive director, in a statement.

“It is empowering to be nominated alongside diplomats, ministers, scientists, and policy makers in the disarmament movement,” Singh said. “It demonstrates that youth are more than capable of making a change and are now being officially recognized for the work that they do.”

Singh added he hopes that the nomination helps recognize the work that all youth who are in the disarmament movement are putting in to the cause. 

“What this movement needs now, more than ever, is more youth to take the lead and make an impact,” he said.

Ali and Singh are recognized for their successful advocating for Winnipeg city council’s unanimous support for the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. 

“After finding out the result, we were thrilled and elated,” Ali told The Herald in June. “It took several months of hard work, from an idea to when the Cities Appeal reached council, so having a quick and unanimous final vote felt fantastic.”

In 2019, the pair were invited to attend the Nuclear Peace Summit at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. 

“What we’ve learned through this is that Canada, although we don’t possess nuclear weapons of our own, we do contribute to the proliferation of nuclear weapons and we do have nuclear power plants here,” Ali said.

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Ali and Singh decided to try to build off the momentum the Nuclear Peace Summit had built. Working with the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, they launched Reverse the Trend, an initiative to engage youth on the front lines of the fight for nuclear disarmament, which led to their proposal at city council.

Regardless of how the final voting pans out, Ali and Singh are not ready to rest on their laurels.

“We want to continue teaching others about the Cities Appeal and will continue helping everyone who is thinking about or are currently working on their own ICAN Cities Appeal campaigns,” Singh said. “More than anything, we want to see more Canadian municipalities endorse the appeal — to continue the tide of change, one city at a time.”

Other nominees for the award include ministers, US senators, scientists and scholars. Voting for the awards can be done online until Wed., Jan. 12, 2022.

For more information, or to vote for Ali and Singh, visit www.armscontrol.org/pressroom/2021-12/2021-arms-control-persons-year-nominees-announced

Sheldon Birnie
Community Journalist

Sheldon Birnie is a reporter/photographer for the Free Press Community Review. The author of Missing Like Teeth: An Oral History of Winnipeg Underground Rock (1990-2001), his writing has appeared in journals and online platforms across Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. A husband and father of two young children, Sheldon enjoys playing guitar and rec hockey when he can find the time. Email him at sheldon.birnie@freepress.mb.ca Call him at 204-697-7112

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