Malala Yousafzai to address Parliament

Stephanie Levitz, The Canadian Press , Published Wednesday, April 12, 2017 6:26AM EDT, Last Updated Wednesday, April 12, 2017 12:15PM EDT, http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/m...parliament-1.3365184

OTTAWA -- Malala Yousafzai, the irrepressible Pakistani education activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner who famously survived a Taliban bullet in 2012, has become an honorary Canadian citizen.

Yousafzai received the honour Wednesday during a long-awaited and anticipated ceremony on Parliament Hill alongside Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, before an audience of dignitaries, MPs, cabinet ministers and diplomats.

Trudeau presented her with a framed certificate of citizenship, making her only the sixth person to receive the honour and the youngest ever. He also presented her with the flag from atop the tower.

"It is not just honorary citizenship of Canada; it is also being Canada's friend, and I warmly accept it," Yousafzai told the gathering afterward.

"I want to thank Canada for its passion for girls' education, for its passion for humanity, for refugees, and for standing up for women's rights, and for peace.

"You are a true example to the world of what it means to stand up for humanity, and I'm hopeful you will inspire many more countries and many more leaders to follow your footsteps."

The 19-year-old Yousafzai -- known to all and sundry these days simply as "Malala" -- was to address MPs and senators shortly in a joint session of Parliament, again marking yet another milestone as the youngest person ever to do so.

"Your story is an inspiration to us -- all the violence you survived at the hands of the Taliban didn't deter you as it would have so many others," Trudeau told the ceremony.

"You stood even stronger in the face of oppression; your passion for justice only intensified."

Today's pomp and pageantry comes more than two years after an initial plan to honour Yousafzai was interrupted by a gunman who took the life of a Canadian soldier and stormed Parliament Hill before dying in a hail of gunfire.

Yousafzai surprised a group of students at an Ottawa high school earlier today where she was introduced to cheers by Trudeau's wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau.

The day Yousafzai was originally to be honoured, Oct. 22, 2014, marked a moment replete with irony for Rona Ambrose, a former status of women minister who is currently serving as the Conservative party's interim leader.

"This irony didn't escape me: the fact that this kind of Islamic extremism, (which) takes the shape of anti-girl, anti-women rights in every possible way ... also arrived that day," Ambrose said in an interview.

The groundwork to make the now 19-year-old an honorary citizen began several months after she was shot in the fall of 2012.

The honour was part of a political initiative tied into the Conservatives' foreign aid focus on maternal, newborn and child health, said Rachel Curran, Harper's former director of policy.

"It was just really a sense that this young woman is doing really important work, it's going to be increasingly important, we want to highlight it in Canada and highlight it internationally as well," Curran said in an interview.

"'How can we bestow one of our greatest honours on her?' We landed on that because it was the most significant thing we could do to draw attention to her work."

The other five honorary citizens are the Dalai Lama, the Aga Khan, Nelson Mandela, Burmese activist Aung San Suu Kyi and Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg.

What binds them all together is that they are leaders who have played iconic roles in world history, said Chris Alexander, the former Conservative immigration minister who oversaw the technical process behind getting Yousafzai citizenship.

"Malala is both a symbol of the setbacks and the daunting barriers that girls can face," he said.

"But also of the ability of strong people to overcome them."