(Washington, D.C. | July 13, 2015) Thanks to a partnership with the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the Assembly of First Nations, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, and the Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF), Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Human Rights is proud to announce the launch of a Canadian version of Speak Truth To Power in the coming school year.

A preview of the resource website, which will include Speak Truth To Power lesson plans and other resources for educators, will take place July 17 at the CTF’s Annual General Meeting in Ottawa (www.ctf-fce.ca).

“This terrific collaboration with our Canadian partners will enable us to reach hundreds of thousands of teachers and students across the country,” said John Heffernan, Executive Director of Speak Truth To Power at RFK Human Rights. “Speak Truth is about building a citizenry committed to holding society to the highest standard of equality and justice and we are thrilled to have Canada on board.”

Speak Truth To Power, a project of RFK Human Rights, is a global initiative inspired by Kerry Kennedy’s book Speak Truth To Power: Human Rights Defenders Who Are Changing Our World. The curriculum uses the experiences of courageous activists from around the world to educate students and others about human rights and urge them to take action. Issues range from slavery and environmental degradation to religious self-determination and political participation.

Currently, the program is taught to more than one million students in the United States and around the world at levels from pre-school to law school.

“The idea of developing a Canadian version of STTP began in 2012, when the CTF approached RFK Human Rights after a presentation at the Education International (EI) World Congress in South Africa. CTF was inspired by the ‘Defenders’ approach and felt it would be an effective teacher tool for the education of human rights in Canadian classrooms,” said Diane Woloschuk, CTF President. “Speak Truth to Power Canada shares courageous stories from Canadian defenders with Canadian students with the hope they too become engaged in social justice and defenders for human rights in their own communities.”