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REPORT / CANADA
LITTLE CHILDREN, BIG QUESTIONS
At 11:15 every morning during the coronavirus outbreak, Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has addressed the nation from the steps of his official residence in Ottawa, Rideau Cottage. But last Sunday the journalists who usually gather there to question him were absent. Instead, the panel was made up of members from one group of Canadians that has been particularly affected by the shutdown measures aimed at curbing the outbreak: children.
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“Hi, Mr Prime Minister!” said the first questioner, dressed in an oversized Toronto Maple Leafs ice hockey shirt, in a video message to Trudeau. “My name is Gwyneth and I’m eight years old and I would like to know how is your family keeping busy during social distancing?
Thank you!” she said, signing off cheerfully. Trudeau duly replied: board games, helping with homework and calling family and friends. And so the questions – handpicked from more than 4,000 letters, emails and videos submitted by children from across the country – continued, ranging from when schools will reopen to what is being done to help homeless people during the outbreak.
“I miss my dad so much,” wrote eight-year-old Malek Al Shafei in a handwritten note describing how his father is stranded in Dubai. “Please help him come home quickly.” Trudeau vowed that he would.
Trudeau isn’t the first leader to take children’s questions on the outbreak; Erna Solberg, prime minister of Norway, held a similar press conference with children last month. Others around the world have attempted to allay children’s confusion during the pandemic: the BBC has revamped its children’s TV schedules to reflect school curricula while classrooms remain closed and German toy-maker Playmobil produced a film featuring its famous figurines explaining the pandemic to young audiences.
Back at Rideau Cottage, the most important question was saved for last: what song does the prime minister sing while he washes his hands, to ensure that he scrubs them thoroughly? “Happy birthday,” the prime minister said. “Won’t you sing it for us?” he was asked. And, smiling down the camera lens to his young questioners, he did.
