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August 9, 2020 is the United Nations International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, which this year showcases the resilience of communities around the world in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the Foundation’s recent Emergence Webinar on the COVID-19 pandemic’s implications for First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities in Canada, panelists made observations worth revisiting on this day

This year, International Youth Day is being marked under the theme "Youth Engagement for Global Action". In order for young people to succeed in building the future, they need the right skills and opportunities.



Mélanie Doucet is a  2014 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholar who as a youth was herself in the care of the child welfare system. She says what is needed is love, mentoring and support. That is why it is more important than ever to involve young people in the policy development process, and even engage them as co-researchers within a new approach that seeks to be emancipatory and focuses on social justice. In that way, young people are empowered to help define their own needs, hopes and expectations, rather than having conditions imposed on them.   

The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation is proud to announce Language, Culture & Identity as the Scientific Theme that will frame the leadership journey of its next cohort of Scholars to be selected in the spring of 2021. Through the guidance of Fellows and Mentors, 2021 Scholars will explore issues and debates around language(s) across disciplines, including issues at the intersection of language, culture, and identity.

Given the complex nature of language, which has both biological and cultural dimensions, it is associated with a broad range of questions and issues that have long confronted thinkers in a plurality of disciplines, from philosophy to anthropology, linguistics, psychology, sociology and neuroscience, to name but a few. Today, contemporary trends such as the critical situation of many Indigenous languages worldwide, technological progress in artificial intelligence (AI), and a backlash against globalization bring new urgency and relevance to a number of language-related questions.

August 19, 2020, marks the eleventh year of World Humanitarian Day, a day dedicated to paying special tribute to real-life heroes who commit their lives toward helping others in extreme circumstances around the world. This year, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, community and humanitarian organizations are being called upon more than ever before.

The significance of this day particularly resonates with Diala Lteif, a 2018 Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Scholar and a native of Beirut, Lebanon, in light of the deadly explosions that took place on August 4, 2020. According to Diala Lteif, whose doctoral research focuses on conflict-induced displacement in Beirut, the impact of the destruction from an urban perspective is—simply put—catastrophic.

The pandemic has exposed the fault lines of social injustice in many areas of our society. It is in this context that the Black Lives Matter social movement returned to the forefront, following the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police, along with a groundswell of related movements including the BIPOC Project. These movements have put systemic racism front and centre in an overdue call for structural transformation. Meanwhile, they have also prompted concerns over freedom of speech as academics, institutional leaders, journalists and writers have come under attack for sharing defensible perspectives. 

September 5, 2020, marks United Nations International Day of Charity, a day which draws attention to several themes and values that are central pillars of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, including Community, Volunteerism, and Responsible Citizenship.