By Jeff Davis
Sporting a soul-patch goatee and a large diamond earring, Majd El-Samrout, doesn’t seem to have much in common with most Ontario parliamentarians.
But unlike his classmates at Lisgar Collegiate, this 18-year-old juggles his classes with another decidedly grown-up pursuit — writing provincial laws.
El-Samrout, who has “always believed in sticking up for the little guy,” has written a private members bill aimed at protecting young workers from abuse in the workplace. The bill, submitted April 6, could force employers to better inform young workers of their rights, such as their right to refuse unsafe work.
El-Samrout got the opportunity to write his bill through a CBC TV series called “Making the Grade.” The series, created by Ontario Legislature reporter Mike Wise, is an attempt by the CBC to shake up the way it covers politics.
“People get turned off by the he-said-she-said of politics,” said Wise.
The solution was a grassroots initiative aimed at bringing young people into the political process. Ontario politicians accepted the idea of taking suggestions for bills, so Wise set out to collect ideas from high schools across Ontario.
Wise’s call was answered by Craig MacDonald, an English teacher at Richard Pfaff Alternate School on Percy Street. He says El-Samrout, then one of his students, jumped at the chance to write a law.
El-Samrout toured the school’s classrooms, asking fellow students for their on-the-job horror stories.
One friend, Majd says, was injured while working for a moving company. While on a job, his friend was asked to ride in the back of the moving van. He accepted, and was injured en route. The company paid him a pittance, El-Samrout says, and his friend continued to work there. “It’s a good paying job,” his friend said, “why should I lose that for a little injury?”
Another friend said his manager had lost his paycheck, and demanded he pay $20 for a reprint. El-Samrout says he was shocked to hear his friend was going to pay the bogus fee.
“Students get taken advantage of very easily” Majd says, “and the hardest thing to do is to stand up and say ‘no.’”
El-Samrout decided his bill should aim to better inform students and young workers of their rights in the workplace.
“He’s focused on what he wants,” MacDonald says, “and when he undertakes something he is really drawn to, kids follow him. And you need leaders in class.”
El-Samrout’s idea was a hit and was picked up by “bill-making clubs” at high schools in Aurora and Oakville. They developed the idea, deciding posters explaining worker’s rights, written in easily-understandable language, should be mandatory in all workplaces and a handbook be given out to students on their first day of work.
Ideas poured into the CBC on a wide range of subjects.
More than 100 of the most promising were submitted to a panel of MPPs from the governing Liberal, opposition Conservative and New Democratic parties.
Each party agreed to sponsor one bill and to hold a special ‘second reading’ session on the bills in mid to late April. El-Samrout’s bill made the cut along with two others — one aimed at improving recycling programs in schools, the other at making school cafeterias healthier.
Majd’s bill was sponsored by the NDP. It has been submitted to the house for first reading by Andrea Horwath, MPP for Hamilton-East.
Horwath, the NDP’s critic for youth services, says she welcomed the opportunity to connect with youth. She says this has been a learning experience for her as well.
“It’s raised my awareness about the lack of knowledge students and young people have about labour law,” she says “they don’t know it is their right to refuse unsafe work and that’s what they need to know.”
Horwath says the project is important because it engages youth in the political process.
Furthermore, she says, “it reminds politicians they have a responsibility to think about ideas coming from the grassroots, from the people. This will only make democracy more robust.”