ARPA Canada’s first-ever youth edition of their signature God and Government is kicking off in Ottawa today. We Need a Law Director Mike Schouten says the idea for this conference goes back to last year. “The past couple of years that we’ve done the G&G there’s always been a couple of young people that attend, and last year we had a trial process whereby we took in some students from Southern Ontario, and that sort of sowed the seeds for this year.” He says ARPA decided to have a conference dedicated to youth to hopefully “set the stage for these young people to either pursue careers in politics or careers in advocacy organizations or, if not that, just (getting them to realize) the importance of our calling to be a salt and a light in the culture.”

The students will take in lectures on everything from pornography to pre-born human rights and sphere sovereignty, and they also have meetings booked with MPs and Senators from all three major parties. There will also be an opportunity to sit in on various Parliamentary Committee meetings. “Interestingly enough,” Schouten says, “the Justice Committee is going to be debating Bill C-16, so we’re hoping to be able to get a few of the groups in to those Committee meetings.”

The students have also been invited to participate in Thursday’s national March for Life on Parliament Hill.