Meet Me at the Bell Tower (MM@BT) founder and spokesman Michael Champagne (top right, right) received the award on behalf of AYO and all those who gather every Friday evening year-round on the corner of Selkirk Avenue and Powers Street in Winnipeg's North End.
Here Michael Champagne is challenging the MM@BT group as a take a stand against hatred and violence.
WINNIPEG, MB-Manitoba's human rights organizations honored Indigenous youth in Winnipeg's North End who, as a group, are working together to bring about reconciliation.
The Manitoba Human Rights Commission, the Manitoba Association for Rights and Liberties, and the Canadian Human Rights Commission, gave their 2015 Commitment Award to Aboriginal Youth Opportunities "Meet Me at the Bell Tower" at the Union Centre on Broadway in conjunction with International Human Rights Day.
MM@BT founder and spokesman, Michael Champagne, received the award on behalf of AYO and all those who gather every Friday evening on the corner of Selkirk Avenue and Powers Street. They have been doing so for the past four years in an effort to, bring back confidence to North End residents in their effort to battle crime and to bring life to race relations in Winnipeg.
Champagne who was named "top 20 under 40" in the METRO newspaper as well as profiled in TIME magazine as "an influencial youth leader", indicated that the MM@BT is now inviting different ethnic groups to join them in an effort to connect with Indigenous leaders and become part of the "bell tower family."
Christie McLeod received the 2015 Sybil Shack Human Rights Youth Award for her efforts to battle sex trafficking and taking a stand for women's rights as well as being a voice for the Shoal Lake 40 First Nation.
