Erin Eacott (’93): What does it mean to take risks for good when you are 45 years old?
As we celebrate 30 years of investing in high-potential young Canadians, we have asked members of our community to reflect on meaningful risks and what constitutes #risksforgood. Erin Eacott (Loran Scholar ’93), a prosecutor for the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, submitted the following reflection as part of the series.
When the Loran Scholars Foundation asked if I would write an article about taking risks for good (#RisksforGood), I immediately said yes. Taking risks in an attempt to make positive change in our world has been a life philosophy for me. It started when I was a kid. When I graduated from high school, I was the recipient of a Loran Award, and as an adult, Loran has challenged me to continue to live according to that philosophy.
But, when I sat down to write this article, it was much harder than I thought. What is a meaningful risk for someone who is middle-aged…? When I was younger, I could travel to live anywhere; I didn’t care if people criticized my ideas; and in my head, nothing was a barrier that couldn’t be overcome. While this is all, sort of, still true for me at 45, the reality is a little harder to implement. I have kids who are immersed in costly activities where we live and a husband with an amazing job who has no desire to move away from it right now. Working as a federal prosecutor for the last 18 years, I have learned that while I don’t want to care when people criticize my ideas, to help effect change in a bureaucratic environment (or any large organization), I do need to care and listen carefully to naysayers. And while it frustrates my can-do attitude, I have encountered barriers to effecting change that were insurmountable.
What I consider to be a risk has also changed as I have aged. For instance, as an environmentalist, when I became a prosecutor, I found that federal fines in Canada for environmental offences were very low — often (contrary to sentencing principles), “a mere slap on the wrist” for large multi-million or billion dollar companies. So, my goal as a young prosecutor was to push for higher fines. At the time, it was a risk. Fines are based on previous case precedents. As a new prosecutor, my reputation with defence counsel and judges (and thus my ability to effect change) would be built around the reasonableness of positions I was taking. If I jumped too high too quickly on my recommended sentences, particularly without significant reasons to distinguish them from previous cases, my recommendations would simply be brushed aside as unreasonable. Over time, through work by myself and colleagues, as well as changes to federal environmental legislation and increased public attention to the environment generally, federal fines for environmental offences have increased. So today, continuing to seek large fines no longer seems a risk.
What I struggle with the most at age 45 is how to combat climate change. This is where I now want to take the most risks for good. But how? There is no niche in my current job (there are very few or no prosecutions to date for offences related specifically to climate change). My family is not in a position where I can move, or even perhaps quit working to focus exclusively on activism. I live in Alberta, not a hotbed for climate action. I cannot as one person, in any large meaningful way, get the government to take more action or to rewrite how businesses operate. I can’t reduce human overpopulation in the world.
So, I have chosen to indoctrinate children. Mine and others. Okay, maybe “indoctrinate” is too strong a word. It suggests education without critical thought, which is not my goal. My goal is to help children step outside their comfort zones, so that they develop the confidence to take risks for changes they believe in. And in my experience, particularly as a Girl Guide leader, children are immensely concerned about the state of our planet. They are also exposed to extensively more information about the environment than my generation at the same age. Ask any grade 3 student today, and they can tell you what “habitat” means and how it relates to an animal’s survival. Not so in 1983.
How do you get kids to step outside their comfort zone? It is my favourite activity. There are many big ways and small ways. While I was on the Board of Directors for Girl Guides of Canada (GGC), I was involved in an initiative which resulted in GGC revamping its programming (and its “Promise”) to include taking action for a better world and building more leadership skills, especially through engaging girls in the development of their own programming. In my own Guide unit, I have found that one of the best ways to get kids to step outside their comfort zone is in the outdoors.
Every kid’s comfort zone is different. Stepping out of it may mean sleeping in a tent, building a fire, climbing to the top of a mountain, tipping and righting a canoe, planning one’s own outdoor adventure, or being brave enough to step off a zipline platform. I will be there to encourage, ensure they don’t quit too soon, and after, to debrief — to get them to internalize the brave, strong, independent thing they just did. Only it’s not just independent, my encouragement always results in the other girls pitching in to encourage, thus building the seeds of teamwork. I am always amazed at the pride and confidence outdoor activities instill. They also simultaneously build a child’s bond with nature, and thus further their desire to protect it.
Given the serious environmental issues our planet is facing, and the fact that children are keenly aware of them, we have an obligation to give children tools, such as confidence, to fight for their future. If not, in the face of the immensity of the problems, they risk becoming defeated, complacent and/or depressed. As one mom of teenagers told me, her kids have become numb to the world’s problems because they seem so outside of their ability to do anything about. That is scary. But I get it.
My steps, too, feel small. But no step is too small. I truly believe that if all of us try our best to step outside our comfort zone and learn and strive for new things (no matter our age), the impact of change, environmental or otherwise, will be large.
But, I haven’t really answered the question about what it means to take risks for good at age 45, have I? Getting kids to step outside their comfort zone (and training Guide leaders to do this with their units) is not a risk for me. I need to keep searching for what are significant risks for me now and into the future. Until I find them, my challenge to myself, and to you, is to try and give ourselves and our families something new once a week that is outside our and our family’s comfort zones. Maybe it is making vegetarian tourtière to see if your kids will notice and eat it. (Ok, mine noticed, but they ate it once we talked about the reasons for decreasing meat consumption). Maybe it is being responsible for taking your child’s grade 5 class to a climate strike. Maybe it is telling friends, family and your kids that plastic presents, like LOL dolls, will no longer be accepted as birthday and Christmas presents. (If you have ever tried to tell a grandparent what they can or cannot give as gifts, you will know this is a risky, or at least very uncomfortable, endeavour!). Start planting seeds for change with your kids.
Children are the government, community and business leaders of tomorrow. The tools and information they learn from us today will vastly impact their perspectives as leaders. If we ensure that today’s children are brought up to respect and protect the environment, and have confidence to think outside the box and take risks to promote a healthier relationship with our planet, the governments and corporations that they run in the future will have vastly different environmental cultures than those of today.
