Aid groups ask Canada to prevent child soldiers by rallying G7 heads around education

Preventing child soldiers

Photo: The Canadian Press

Senator Romeo Dallaire testifies about Canada's contribution to international peacekeeping before the House of Commons committee on national defence in Ottawa on Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018.  

Canada's aid sector is rallying around a call for Ottawa to use its place on the world stage to promote education as a way of shoring up global security.

Canada is hosting the G7 leaders' summit this June in Alberta and typically the host makes an international development pledge.

Aid groups and Canadian senators have joined to ask Canada to use that opportunity to champion "peace, education and security."

They are focusing on how Canada can bolster security at home by preventing youth from being recruited by armed groups.

Former senator Roméo Dallaire, who led Canada's peacekeeping mission in Rwanda in the 1990s, says education can stem insecurity that leads to violence.

Canada has not indicated its plans for the summit yet with uncertainty about who the prime minister will be at that time and global pressure on all aid projects following the U.S. funding pullback under President Donald Trump.